Rayd8her
by hezzabeth
Summary: Not everything is black and white and Kristy is about to discover that the good guy can also be the villian, a story of crime, war and David Bowie.
1. Chapter 1

Rayd8her

By Hezzabeth

A/N I would like to thank Cecilia who was so nice to me when I spoke to her and who helped inspire this story. Of course the final product turned out to be a lot different from my initial concept but that's only because I let Kristy run away from me.

First thing first I am not a control freak, many people seem to think I am but they only think this because they're disorganized idiots who keep claiming that they'll do things and then they never do it!

Take my friend Abbigail Stevens for example, she keeps claiming that I need to loosen up.Then she'll do things like show up forty minutes late for a study session because she got distracted by a south park marathon on comedy central.

Those forty minutes could have been spent completing the program so I would have time to fit in a run before the charity food drive I was organizing at my school. But no instead I was forced to sit around and wait for her thus wasting exactly forty minutes of my life! Forty minutes that I will never ever get back again, and she dares to call me a control freak?

Is it so wrong to want to have things working and in order? Is it so wrong to actually take work and life seriously? I don't think so! because if you let stuff like schoolwork slide then you end up becoming a skank like Cokie Mason.

Or worse you'll end up repeating your freshmen year two times like my good friend Claudia Kishi.

Of course some people don't seem to appreciate a good work ethic, it's not as if I'm completely friendless I mean I get along pretty well with my best friends Claudia and Mary Anne. Back in middle school I never really had to put up with anything accepts for Alan Grey putting wet noodles down my shirt. Then high school changed everything, suddenly it didn't matter how talented or how hard you worked, all anyone ever seemed to care about were bra sizes and designer labels.

The girls were pretty bad, especially when they called me names like " Dyke" but the boys were worse.

Still I reasoned that there was no such thing as universal popularity, even people like Cokie Mason were despised by half the student population. Being a leader and being organized didn't mean you had to be popular so I signed up for student council as soon as I began my junior year at Stony Brook high school.

The second thing you should know about me is that I'm committed and I don't give up on things easily, especially when it seems like I'm failing. Failing just does not exist in my world, it's totally stale, which was why I was really shocked when nobody ever listened to my ideas during student council meetings.

Of course I was still a junior but people paid more attention to the freshmen members and there ideas all involved stupid things like getting lip gloss machines installed in the girls bathrooms.

I'd made several careful enquires and I now knew that lip gloss vending machines only existed in Japan.

I tried to ask if the sports teams could raise more money to get new uniforms (currently we were running around in our sports bra's and bike shorts which resulted in dozens of boys mysteriously gravitating to the field every day during after school practice). I was told I'd need to fill in forms and then get them signed by the school treasurer and get fifty signatures to prove that the teams actually wanted uniforms.

Being me I was willing to do this, I was organized and capable and I had all the paper work done within forty-eight hours.

I brought it all to the school president Jonathon Mathews and he eyed it all curiously.

"What's this Thomas?" he asked.

"It's the paper work you asked me to fill in, you know the permission forms to allow the track team to raise money for new uniforms," I said showing my best confident smile which had really improved ever since I'd gotten rid of my night brace.

"Uh huh, these forms have been photo copied" he began.

"Yes?" I asked.

"You're only supposed to fill in original copies of these forms Thomas and you were supposed to file them six months in advance, there are only three months left until the end of the school year" he said sweeping the papers aside until they fell into the bin.

"Why do I need to organize this six months in advance? It's just a car wash!" I pointed out and he smiled his brisk controlling smile.

"Thomas there are over fifty different clubs and organizations in this school and we can't have them holding fundraisers whenever they feel like it! The school would turn into a virtual hot bed of illicit activity if that was the case" he said and he straightened the tie he wore, yes he was a high school student who actually wore a tie.

"It's just a car wash and we need those uniforms," I cried.

"Well then you should have got things organized much sooner" he pointed out.

Now if you knew me well and you wanted to insult me you'd know that the best way to do it was to hint that I wasn't organized, it was like calling me a crack whore.

"But you never said these had to be made six months in advance, I've made this my student council project! What am I supposed to do now?" I protested and he just gave me this polite apologetic grin.

"Well we do need help in the student court" he began.

The student court had once been started by an idealistic principal during the seventies who decided it would be a brilliant idea to get students to investigate disciplinary issues. This was back in the good old days when Stoneybrook was wholesome and the worst that ever happened usually involved a kid flipping a teacher off. Now things were different and the student court was something of a joke. No one took them seriously and a few well-placed bribes usually resulted in half the pranksters (including Cary Retlin) doing whatever the hell they wanted.

The student court had their own classroom, some one had written "Student Cunt" across the glass frosted window. I paused taking a deep breath I knew I could this. Student Council members had to contribute or they'd end up being kicked out and being fired was worse then failing because at least failing meant I'd made the decision myself.

I knocked on the door quickly then marched in summoning my best indoor speaking voice.

"Hello every one I'm Kristy Thomas" I said brightly, there was an awkward silence.

"We know who you are," a voice said in a bored way and I flushed with embarrassment.

"Oh Rick Chow and um."I began trailing off.

"The names Greg" said the second guy sitting next to Rick.

"Greg what?" I asked.

"Just Greg" he said flatly and I turned back to Rick, there were two things I knew about Rick Chow.

One he was Asian.

Two, Stacey McGill had once given him a hand job behind the school bleachers but that applied to practically every guy in the school.

"Where's every one else?" I asked.

"You're looking at every one" Rick began.

"You're kidding! The student court only consists of two people?" I asked unable to believe it.

"Well there's us and the guidance counselor Ms Flint but she spends most of her time sobbing hysterically over badly written star trek fiction" Rick said helpfully.

"How are we supposed to accomplish anything with only three people?" I asked and Rick sighed.

"We don't accomplish anything and that's the whole point, haven't you figured it out yet Kristy?" he asked.

"Figured what out?" I asked.

"Jonathon is a control freak, he'll try to trick you into doing things his way and if that doesn't work he sends you here were you won't bother him" Rick explains.

"I've been here since my freshmen year" Greg said.

"Usually we just use the room to hang out and play video games," Rick added.

"Video games?" I spluttered.

"Well we couldn't get an Xbox in here" apologized Greg.

"I can't believe you two! Discipline is like an important thing you know and without it the world would fill with well.. Chaos" I said trying to inspire them but Rick Chow blinked.

"Oh this is one of those infamous Kristy Thomas trying to boss every one around speeches," he said knowingly slowly nodding.

"I heard of those, watch out she'll bring her whistle out and then will go deaf" said Greg fearfully.

"I'm not going to make you go deaf! I assume that the principal still sends you case files? And discipline reports?" I asked and they both rolled their eyes.

"Sure he loads them up onto the school servers" Rick said dismissively.

"Right" I said adjusting my baseball cap and I marched towards the dusty and faintly sticky computer.

"You're not going to be on that all afternoon are you? Because we want to play some quake" Rick Chow said reproachfully.

I emailed the entire set of files to my gmail account and as soon as I got home I shut myself up in my room with a packet of peanut butter cups and the laptop Watson bought me for Christmas.

I ignored all distractions including my adopted sister Emily Michelle (she's Vietnamese you know, doesn't explain the name though) who was begging me to get her Barbie doll out from the toilet again.

By midnight I had finished sorting through all the files, labeling them and color coding them and suddenly I knew I was ready.

I smiled a small smirk of satisfaction as I began to print the documents off, Jonathon may have seen the student court as a joke but I was going to prove that he was wrong.


	2. Are You Sitting Down?

A/N I do not own the BSC, Anne M Martin created it and you get the picture.

Also thanks to the people who reviewed me ( yes all three of you) some one suggested I find a beta is but the problem is I have used beta's in the past who usually created far more mistakes in my stories.

It's difficult to learn how to trust again after a situation like that.

Chapter Two: Are you sitting down?

When I was fifteen I got into a fair bit of trouble for attacking Cokie Mason during Gym class. I ended up cutting her arm although to be fair she nearly broke my nose; we were both as bad as each other. The councilor showed me this video about this kid who got so badly bullied in England that he ended up killing himself and I think she was trying to imply that I was a bully. I quite calmly told her that the fight started because Cokie called my friend Stacey a whore in front of every one. Even if secretly I may have suspected that what Cokie said was true I still couldn't let her get away with it. Anyway we both ended up having detention for nearly three months and we were told we were weren't suspended. I used my time to work on doing extra credit for my history class and by the end of the year I was the top student, Cokie used her detention time to hit on any guy who happened to be in the room and on a sports team. There was however one thing I noticed when I had detention though, although every one accused me of being paranoid when I mentioned it. Every now and then although not too often to be a regular thing Cary Retlin, Alan Grey and Pete Black would all get detention at the same time.

When you got detention there were two things you could do, clean up the school or do your homework and they always chose the latter. I would watch them leave the room with the custodian holding buckets in their hands.

Then the janitor would report that he's keys had gone missing only to find out that they were back by the end of detention.

The next morning some sort of prank always happened, one time the Principals car had some how been lowered onto the library's roof. Another time the school speakers had been rigged to play the Macarena at a continuous loop and finally in the most famous incident of all the school had been filled with a stampede of wild dogs and cats all stolen from the animal welfare center.

Whoever did it (and to me the culprits were obvious) they were professionals, they never broke in and they never left marks.

The school tried changing the locks and only I noticed that every time the boys had detention the janitor would loose his keys.

The old Kristy would have reported it, but the new Kristy knew perfectly well that she needed evidence if she was going to prove anything.

Unfortunately I finished my detention for the year and soon after I did the pranks stopped for a while.

It was easy to grow complacent and I stopped thinking about them until I had started going through the disciplinary detention lists on the schools server.

Alan Grey, Pete Black and Cary Retlin were all under going a week of detention finishing on Thursday.

Obviously they hadn't done anything yet but they were planning something.

Something big.

"Rise and shine boys" I said cheerfully as I marched into the student courtroom switching on the lights. Rick and Greg turned away from where they were busy playing solitaire and glared at me.

"Oh god she's back, wake me up when she dies" Greg cried his head hitting his arms.

"Nice to see you to Greg, now Rick sit up and pay attention because I'm going to tell you about my plan" I smirked.

"You have a plan? "Oh god" Rick moaned.

"We're going to catch the pranksters" I finished.

"Oh come one you can't be serious, every one knows who pulls all the wild stunts but no ones been able to catch them" Rick sighed.

"I will, they'll be here tonight with the janitors keys" I continued.

"Kristy even if the pranksters did show up it's not our job to get involved, we lay our heads down low ok and nobody bothers us" Rick sighed patiently.

"Of course it's our job! Whatever they're planning on doing this time it's going to be huge and what if it's dangerous? Remember the car incident? Several people were hurt when it crashed through the ceiling" I pointed out.

"Well yeah but it's not like there drug dealers or anything.. Some of their pranks are kinda funny" Rick said.

"It doesn't matter if they're funny, they steal the janitors keys! And what if they suddenly decided they were bored with putting stuff on the roof? What if they broke into the computer lab?" I pointed out.

"Well.." He began and I knew I had to bring out the big guns.

"I can get you a date with Claudia Kishi" I said and his eyes widened a fraction.

"Oh really?" he asked suspiciously.

"One date for your assistance on this mission, it seems fair enough" I said folding my arms and he considered this for a few moments

"Fine" he said and then he idly picked up a half empty can of coke and poured the contents all over one of the computers keyboards.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I shrieked as there was a crackling sound followed by smoke.

"Making a distraction, don't worry I've done this twice before" he said casually and the classrooms door opened with a bang.

The guidance counselor barged in dressed from head to foot in lavender with a black shawl flapping around her shoulders.

"Rick you didn't accidentally spill coke on one of the keyboards again did you?" she asked.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"I felt the power surge in my office next door and when you've been around Mr. Chow long enough you know how to recognize a keyboard accident" she said briskly moving to the computer.

"Mr. Chow go get another one from storage, I'll see if I can wake Mr. Greg up and fix this" she said.

"You did that on purpose, why?" I asked.

"Sometimes Greg and I need to use the computer lab because out own networks lack the right amount of memory so we distract Miss Flint and take her spare school key" Rick explain leading me into Miss Flints office.

Rick explained that technically speaking it wasn't immoral because Mrs. Flint made so many spare keys that it was like wasn't really stealing at all.

I remained unconvinced but then I recalled the times the BSC had to hire Cary Retlin to break into various peoples Lockers, sometimes the wrong thing was after all the right thing to do.

Which was why I found myself in Abby's car as we drove up to the school later in the evening.

"Breaking into buildings with a dash of mystery and self righteousness, it's just like an episode of CSI and I love it" Abby squealed and I rolled my eyes.

"Back down Sherlock Stevens, I'm just going to go in there and get proof that they're up to no good, you're going to stay here and keep the engine running" I said going over the plan again,

"Awww Kristy you're no fun! Why do you get to sneak in all Mission Impossible style while I'm stuck out here in the car?" she whined.

"Because you're a klutz! You'll trip over nothing and blow our cover," I pointed out.

"That does make sense, your logic is outstanding Thomas" Abby admitted with a wry grin.

"I'll be back in fifteen minutes hopefully, they'll most likely target the gym or the library," I said putting a digital camera in my pocket.

"If you don't come back I'll tell your family you love them and erase all the porn off your computer" Abby said sincerely.

"Shut up Abby" I snapped.

"Remember the code word is Pink Fluffy Tigers," she added tapping her nose.

"Whatever Abby" I smiled affectionately.

The schools front doors were already unlocked, but inside there was nothing but darkness. Normally I was against making a fuss over clothing, after all it was just clothes but even I knew it was a bad idea to walk around wearing a bright red t shirt and jeans when I was attempting to be stealthy. Instead I'd put on my black strong bad baby toll shirt with my black jeans and I'd used a black ski hat to cover my hair. I'd also put on my mother opera gloves to hide any finger prints and my sneakers which were so well worn they made the sound of footsteps impossible. I crept through the school ducking behind lockers and garbage bins, barely able to see anything in the dark blue moonlight.

Then suddenly when I got closer to the auditorium I heard several muffling squeaking sounds and I moved into the theatre ducking behind the seats.

I could see him clearly in the moonlight, Cary Retlin doing something peculiar to the stage. My first instinct was to rat him out immediately and use my phone to call the Principal but then I paused.

There was no proof yet and Cary could worm himself out of it, claiming he was working late for the school play or something similar.

Instead I crawled underneath the stairs and began to inch my way forward like I'd seen army soldiers do at boot camp on TV, of course it was difficult to keep doing that while my digital camera was being pressed painfully into my chest and I made a small frantic hissing sound.

I stopped inwardly cursing myself and the noises from the stage had stopped as well.

They were followed by footsteps and I sank lower until I was completely hidden underneath the row of seats, I then willed myself to stay still.

The problem with willing yourself to stay still is that you usually have to stay still and this results in leg cramps or if you're really unlucky the dreaded but cramp. The last time I'd ended up in such a situation was when I had to hide in a closet after my friend Stacey and my brother Sam decided to do it on my rec rooms lounge chair.

This time however was worse; the person on the stage (and I was sure it was Cary) didn't leave for nearly twelve minutes.

I knew because I'd been counting off every single second on my digital watch.

Finally there was a shuffling sound followed by the slamming of the auditoriums back exits. I moved silently creeping forwards in the darkness until I reached the orchestra pit where something grabbed my attention.

It was a piece of abandoned sheet music and I picked it up staring at it curiously, of course I couldn't read music but I knew some one could.

There was the sound of approaching footsteps and I climbed up onto the stage hiding behind the velvet curtains.

"Look is there anyone in here? Alan is that you?" a voice called and I recognized the patronizing drawl, it was Cary Retlin.

I said nothing.

"Humph I can hear you breathing you know" he continued and I shoved the piece of music into my spare pocket.

"And I just heard that crinkling of paper, really who ever you are you're not very good at hiding" he continued and I inched backwards trying to remember the auditoriums floor plan in my head. Beyond the curtains there was the back stage, which lead to the costume room that had an open….window.

I'd been on the track team for nearly two years but the problem was that I was a distance runner and it would take me a few moments to build my speed up. By the time I'd run into the costume room I could hear pounding footsteps behind me and I slammed the door behind me before heading for the window.

It wasn't locked; you'd have to be a brilliant climber to even consider trying to escape from it.

Thankfully I also held the girls record for rope climbing and I grabbed onto the blind hoisting myself up and onto the window ledge.

The door slammed open the same instant I'd managed to open the window and as I climbed out I felt a hand grab straight onto my shoe.

"Gottcha and judging by this slim feminine line you are in fact a girl, now turn around and show yourself" Cary grunted and I kicked the shoe off freeing myself, I then did the only thing I could do, I jumped out the window.

Stoneybrook high school was a double story building and the lower levels had their own separate roofs, which you could climb onto from the second story windows. Personally I thought the buildings plans had come from an architect that knew a lot about teen angst because it was impossible for anyone to kill himself or herself by throwing themselves off the building. They'd just roll down onto the next level where they would end up bruised, embarrassed but most importantly not dead.

Back before I'd joined the student council when I was in my fighting with Cokie Mason phase Abby and I managed to climb out onto the roof during one of the school dances. It was Abby's idea; she wanted to see if it was possible to actually climb around the entire school without ever having to touch the footpath. No one else wanted to do it, Stacey said it was immature and Mary Anne declared that it was too dangerous. She'd followed us from window to window clutching onto her cell phone ready to call 911.

"Lets see, the front of the school is to the left" I whispered as I began to walk to run across the roof ignoring the Mary Ann voice inside of me who was telling me I was about to get myself killed.

There was a grunting sound behind me as I turned the corner and I realized Cary must have figured out the roof trick as well.

"Shit" I hissed and unfortunately my cell phone going off interrupted my thoughts.

"What is it Abby?" I hissed.

"It's been fifteen minutes, are you dead yet?" Abby asked as I ran towards the library.

"No but Cary is chasing me across the rooftop" I whispered.

"Ok that sounds like a line stolen from Spiderman, where are you?" she asked and I heard a banging sound followed by cut off swearing, Cary had tripped over the slippery puddle I'd managed to avoid.

"Um outside the library" I said peering into the next window.

"Ok you should be approaching the maple tree with the low branches, try to grab onto the branch which touches the gutter and climb down" Abby instructed.

"Since when are you such an expert on escaping the school?" I asked.

"I hate math," she said simply and I realized I didn't want to know.

"Right I see it, what now?" I asked.

"Climb down and run for it, I'll bring the car around" Abby finished and I sighed as I quickly shoved my phone back into my pocket.

Several minutes later I was sitting inside Abby's car trying to get my breath back as we drove home.

"You look like you've just run a marathon" Abby snickered.

"You try running across a theatre, a roof top and then shimming down a tree and see how hot you look" I snapped back rubbing my temples.

"Um Kristy I know that normally you don't really care about fashion but why are you only wearing one shoe?" she asked and I groaned.

"Because Cary stole it," I cried.

"Cary stole your shoe? That's like Cinderella accept with sneakers and breaking and entering" Abby mused.

"I know and I saw him there but I never got to take a photo, the only evidence I have is this sheet of music" I replied.

"So basically we broke into the school for nothing?"

"I'm sorry" I apologized.

"Don't be, this was way more fun then watching old Adam Sander movies on cable, besides watching Cary fall off the roof was hilarious," she added.

"I just wish I knew what he was planning' I sighed.

"Why are you so obsessed with beating Cary Retlin?" Abby said wearily.

"Because! Because if I don't no one else will" I finished.

The sheet of music offered no clues at all, I'd taken it to Anna who was supposed to be a music expert and she blushed bright red before insisting that she had no idea what it was.

She then told me to leave because she had a lot of homework to do, it was suspicious but then again every one knew that Anna was the evil twin.

Friday rolled around and I trudged off the school bus my stomach churning. I knew that whatever Cary was planning on doing would occur soon and I knew I had no power to stop it.

"Oh my lord have you seen it?" was the first thing Claudia shrieked as I made my way across the lawn.

"Yes for the last time I've seen your bright purple knee socks Claudia" I sighed wearily eyeing Claudia's outfit.

Claudia was going through a color phase, which according to her matched her aura (she'd been to a psychic at a medieval fair in Stamford which was a complete disaster) Fridays were her purple days.

On that particular Friday she was wearing a purple fishnet shirt with a violet satin bustier over the top, a lilac pleated mini skirt, purple striped stockings and a set of lavender ballet slippers. She'd even done her hair in hundreds of tiny twists around her head filled with grape colored ribbons.

"I'm not talking about that Kristy, I'm talking about the front of the school! It's like an artistic statement," she cried leading me to the front steps.

"Oh god" I whispered.

The front of the school had literally been covered with photocopied pictures of the shoe Cary had wrenched off my foot.

Some one had scrawled an email address on the bottom along with a question mark.

"It's so post structuralism!" Claudia squealed.

"Post what?" I asked and she rolled her eyes.

"You know where you take an object and words and you twist their meaning in order to completely confuse the person looking at it," she explained slowly.

"I swear to god sometimes I'm convinced you make this up" I sneered and I marched towards the nearest leaflet snatching it up.

"Oh look at that Kristy some one has lost their shoe" I heard Abby say in a mock innocent tone of voice.

"How terrible" I said still staring at the leaflet, I had really liked my sneakers but obviously the only way to get my shoe back was to admit to Cary that I was the one in the school.

"Seems like some ones making a lot of effort about a shoe, guess they must really want it back" Mary Anne mused.

"Oh believe me they do," I snarled heading for the schools front doors.

"Maybe they'll make an announcement about it during today's assembly, you know in the auditorium" Abby said wickedly.

"Shut up Abby" I hissed.

"I saw the leaflets, was that what you were talking about?" Rick said later as we filed into the auditorium.

"No that was just a side affect, it's something else," I whispered back and Claudia who was ahead of us glanced over her shoulder giving us a curious look.

"Side affect? Are you sick?" she asked and I heard Rick make a strangling sound.

"Hey Claudia you're looking really purple today! Like a the ribena commercial guy accept you're a girl and you're not black" he stuttered and I grimaced.

"Oh my lord that was the look I was going for! You're so dibble Rick" Claudia smiled.

"Dibble?" Rick asked.

"It's a good thing," I explained as I slowly shook my head.

Rick seemed to take that as a sign that he and Claudia were destined to be together and he sat between the two of us without even bothering to ask. Claudia didn't seem to mind; she just started babbling about how the world would be a better place if every one spelt potatoes using the letter e.

I tried to settle in my seat as the auditoriums lights dimmed and the Principal stood at the podium. Some where I heard Cokie Mason's distinct laugh (it was a cross between a horny donkey and a broken car) and then there were a few hushed whispers.

The school orchestra began to play the national anthem and then I sighed leaning against my chair.

Suddenly I realized the whispers had reached a fever pitch.

The school orchestra was not paying the national anthem.

"That's that old song by that dude David Bowie!" I heard a senior yell.

The Principal was staring at the orchestra his mouth wide with confusion and then the curtains opened.

I still don't know what I was waiting for  
And my time was running wild  
A million dead-end streets  
Every time I thought I'd got it made  
It seemed the taste was not so sweet  
So I turned myself to face me  
But I've never caught a glimpse  
Of how the others must see the faker  
I'm much too fast to take that test

There was a movie playing on the white back drop usually used to cover scenery. The Vice Principal of the school who had once infamously put the entire sophomore year on detention. Who measured her pencils so they all had the same length. Who actually wore the blazer she had earned in the army, was singing David Bowie Karaoke dressed in a Santa's hat and her slip while standing on top of our PE Teacher Coach Longgrove.

"Oh my .." Claudia began.

"Don't say it" I began.

"How did they get the footage?" Claudia hissed.

"Web cam, probably hidden during the staff room during last years Christmas party. You can tell because it's so grainy," Rick said and then he blushed when Claudia shot him a delighted look.

"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?" screamed the Vice Principal Victoria Brown her ginger hair escaping her respectable bun. But of course no one was paying attention, half the student body was dying of laughter while the other half were singing along to the words flashing at the bottom of the white screen.

"If this gets out the wife is going to kill me!" screamed Coach Longgrove. The orchestra's conductor tried to stop the musicians but they played along madly not even remotely paying attention to his frantic shrieks.

"Come on Rick, this looks like a job for student court" I said glaring at the movie. It was one thing to go to so much trouble to show a joke, but it was completely different when it wasn't even funny.

Besides no one got away with using David Bowie to mock the Vice Principal.

No one noticed us when we left they were too busy singing.

"What exactly are we going to do?" Rick began.

"They wouldn't stay in the hall incase Vice Principal Brown accused them, they're not that stupid. Besides the whole thing was programmed on the computers, but they would need to have some one close by to make sure everything runs smoothly, some one in the projection room" I said as we quietly walked down the halls until we reached the door that led into the tiny room.

"Do you have any weapons?" I hissed.

"Why would I have any weapons Kristy?" Rick asked flatly.

"Never mind, we'll have to use brute force" I sighed forcing the door open.

There was a scattering frantic sound from within and I smirked triumphantly as I watched Alan Grey try to hide behind the projector.

"Hello Alan" I smirked and he sighed as if defeated.

"I should have listened to him, he said you'd show up" Alan began and I slowly shook my head.

"Who?" I began.

"Cary" Alan admitted.

One of the things I'd always hated about Cary Retlin (it was part of a very long impressive list) was the fact that whenever I was sure I'd beaten him he always managed to find some way of upstaging me.

This time however was worse, Alan lead us down the empty halls and I felt like a cop in action movie who thought they'd defeated the bad guy only to find out the bad guy knew he was after him the whole time.

It wasn't a good feeling.

"Alan what the hell is going on?" I growled.

"Oh this? Well you see Corporal Kristy your about to walk into the biggest cover up since the Kennedy assassination" he explain over his shoulder.

"Oh I saw that in a movie, didn't it turn out that they killed him because of Cuban made pants?" Rick asked.

"Zoolander was a work of fiction Rick" I sighed.

"If it was fiction then why did it have Paris Hilton in it?" he pointed out and I suddenly realized getting him with Claudia would be a travesty against the human gene pool.

"Why are you hanging out with Rick Chow?" Alan asked.

"We're both in the student court, we don't hang out," I said and he laughed.

"Oh yeah Cary told me about that, he said it was perfect for his plans and everything.. God that boy is brilliant, really brings pranking to a whole new artistic level" Alan sighed his eyes growing glassy with praise.

"As apposed to you who still buys fake dog crap," I replied.

"Hey don't knock the classics, there's a reason why they work," he scolded me and I realized Alan had led us down to the boiler room.

"What is with Cary and the boiler room?" I remarked.

"Huh?" asked Rick.

"Oh once Cary made the BSC solve this weird clue about the boiler room involving the radiator, another time Stacey saw him down there reading a book" I said and Alan shot me a curious look.

"Huh not many people know about Cary and the boiler room" he said as if that was something to be proud of.

"As if I care Alan, now tell him to open up because the sooner we get him the sooner we can take him to the Principal" I snapped.

"Ah do you two mind plugging your ears? I need to say the secret password," Alan said.

"The secret password?" I shrieked.

"Cary likes to know if it's a teacher or one of his.. Associates that happens to be stopping by" Alan explained and I rolled my eyes.

"Even if we do plug our ears we'll still be able to hear the secret password," I pointed out.

"I have my Ipod shuffle in my pocket Kristy, we'll take an ear phone each and play the music full blast and then block the other ear" Rick said eagerly searching the pockets of his pressed beige trousers.

I shot Rick a look; it was my infamous are you retarded look.

"That is brilliant" Alan said completely seriously which added to my all males were retarded theory.

"Fine" I sighed knowing that Cary would most likely change the password later. Rick handed me an earphone and I plugged it into my ear, immediately I was assaulted by Ashley Simpson.

I was so distracted by recoiling with horror that I completely missed Alan whisper the password.

"Ugh that was just.. Ugh" I cried yanking the earphone out.

"What's wrong with Ashley Simpson?" Rick asked sounding personally insulted.

"Where do I begin?" I asked as the door creaked open.

One of the other things I hated about Cary Retlin was that when high school started he stopped speaking to me. One of the worst things you can do to your enemy is ignore them; it'll drive them completely crazy. Cary and I were enemies, in away we were complete equals and yet we were opposites, you get the idea.

But then high school started and when you were a straight moderately cute guy you became ever so popular even if you were freshmen. Suddenly there was no more time to play small jokes that involved shoving perfume sachets into lockers and stealing homework. I never mentioned it to anyone but I think people like Mary Anne and Abby knew, they knew that I hated being ignored.

Cary was sitting in the dim light of the boiler room a laptop propped up on his lap. I'd never really paid attention to what he looked like during middle school but if I had I would have noted that he still looked almost the same, accept perhaps a little bigger. Obviously his clothes were a little different as well, fashion had changed a fair bit in the past three years and it looked like Cary was trying to immolate the grungy dark Green Day/Good Charlotte look.

"Alright what is this all about? Why did you show that footage of Vice Principal Brown?" I asked trying to remain as calm and collected as possible, ignoring the snugly fitting band t-shirt and the.. Well ignoring it all really.

"Thomas" he said shooting me a brief appraising look.

"You've grown, the mini politician look suites you" he said his eyes flickering onto my black Capri pants and cranberry colored blouse.

"Explain yourself Retlin, I'm not in the mood for your weird mind games," I snapped.

"Fine, the footage was a distraction, it was the only way I could break into Jonathon Mathews locker" Cary said casually still working on the laptop.

"Take a note Rick, Cary has admitted to stealing from the school presidents locker" I said folding my arms.

"Take a note on what?" asked Rick.

"It was a necessary evil, Alan I've emailed everything back to myself you can return the laptop," he said closing it and Alan immediately ran towards him eagerly like some sort of pathetic yes man.

"You really are pathetic Cary, what exactly are you trying to prove by stealing Jonathon's computer and downloading his files?" I asked and he raised his eyebrows.

"I'm trying to prove that Jonathon Mathews is a criminal" he smirked.

There are certain revelations that have the power to completely twist the universe. Discovering that Bart Taylor was gay was one of them, discovering that my grandmother still had sex was one of them, this one how ever was much worse.

"You're lying," I said stiffly.

"No I'm not actually, Jonathon Mathews has been embezzling money from the school clubs to fund his exchange trip to Japan" he said with a small smile and I glared at Rick.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I don't know anything!" he pleaded and then he stared at both of us.

"Um I'm going to go see if Alan needs any help putting that computer back" he said and then he practically bolted out of the room leaving us alone.

"I refuse to believe you Retlin, how do I know that you're not pulling another one of your elaborate jokes?" I asked and he stared at me for a few moments before reaching behind the radiator. He pulled something out, the rubber soles were melted but it was still recognizable.

"These are yours right? I got an email from Mallory Pike this morning claiming that she recognized it" he said.

"Yeah so what of it?" I asked.

"You were in the school last night" he began narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.

"Have fun trying to prove it," I snapped.

"I'm not going to tell the Principal if you're worried, but in exchange for your silence I will need you to do something" he began.

"I'm not setting you up with one of my friends," I said tiredly.

"You really don't get it do you?" he began.

"Well not when you're being vague," I snapped and he rolled his eyes but almost playfully.

"That's so typical of you Thomas, you never see beyond the obvious. Did it ever occur to you that I might be the good guy?" he asked and I stared at him.

"How do you mean?" I asked cautiously.

"Jonathon Thomas has been stealing money from the clubs fund raisers for years, I figured it out myself a few weeks ago but I knew I needed evidence to prove it was him so I decided to steal his lap top" he began and I narrowed my eyes.

"But you knew that a political figure like Jonathon has freshmen who watch his locker at all times so you decided to rob it when you knew no one would be in the halls, during school assembly" I began trying to think like Cary who tended to think in a corkscrew shaped way.

"Exactly, now I know you can figure out the rest. Why did I show the footage?" he asked smugly and I bit my lip anxiously.

"Why would you do that?" I thought to myself and then I smiled.

"You knew that the teachers would be in an uproar over the prank, they'd be so busy trying to find the culprits that even if Jonathon reported his locker being broken into they wouldn't do anything about it" I realized.

"Brava" he said his expression barely flickering.

"There's one thing you've forgotten about and that's me, I'm on the student court which means I could stop all of this" I said trying to ignore him and he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh you could stop all of it and stop him" he began and I glared at him.

"How?" I asked warily.

"Well like I said you are on the student court Thomas, you could tell every one the truth and they'd believe you. They'd never believe me" he finished and for a second he sounded almost bitter.

"Fine If you can prove to me that Jonathon has been stealing money I'll go to the student court, but in exchange I want you to stay quiet about me being in the school last night" I agreed.

"You mean the breaking and entering situation?" he asked.

"It's not breaking and entering when some one else unlocked the door, it's just entering" I said shooting him a knowing look he smiled at this.

"Either way it's a criminal offence and we'd hardly want to see the great Kristy Thomas tarnishing her reputation, not after the cutting Cokie Mason incident" he mused pursing his lips together.

"Yeah well she deserved it," I muttered and he chuckled quietly.

"I suppose she did, I'll email you the information tonight and you can figure out for yourself if I'm genuine," he said turning away from me, he still held onto the shoe.

"Are you going to give that back?" I asked.

"No I think I'll keep it as insurance" he said hiding it behind the radiator.

"You're infuriating you do know that right?" I asked.

"You have twenty four hours to consider my offer Thomas" he just said slowly standing up, he stretched his arms behind his head and for a brief moment his shirt road up showing a flash of skin.

"Um right, twenty four hours, I'll add that to my day planner" I managed to say forcing my eyes to swivel away.

"You all right?" he asked studying my face intently and I wondered what kind of expression I was wearing.

"No I mean yes I mean I'm fine, I have to go right now this room is way to cramped and hot" I stuttered heading for the door.

"Remember you have twenty four hours" he finished and I shut the door behind me ignoring his trade mark smirk.'

I didn't realize until much later that I'd never given him my email address and yet when I returned home there was a new message in my inbox filled with files. They were the worst files I'd ever encountered and that included the virus that changed all my files from English to Italian.

I realized that as much as I hated Cary I hated the current situation I was in more.


	3. SHS on the street

Chapter Three: SHS On The Street.

A/N The Dawn reference is a nod to the brilliant fic Amsterdam Amsterdam by Cecilia.

I would like to say thanks to every one who reviewed the last chapter,

"This emergency meeting of the babysitters alumni has now been called to order," I said crisply later that afternoon. The babysitters club, which I created back during junior high, still existed but now Vanessa Pike and a bunch of my former chargers were running it. The babysitter's alumni however was a society created for the original members.

"Kristy this emergency isn't like the time you needed extra players for your softball team is it? Because I ended up twisting both my ankles and my wrist last time" Mary Anne asked her eyes tearing up.

"It's nothing like that!" I said and it seemed like Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey and Abby all sighed with relief.

"Make a note Mary Anne, Mallory Pike and Jessica Ramsey are both missing from today's meeting" I began.

"Well Mallory is the president of the current BSC and Jessica I think is entering a free style hip hop dance off in New York" Mary Anne said checking the official BSC Alumni note book.

"Ok take another note, Dawn Schafer is also missing" I began.

"Um Kristy Dawn is still missing after she ran away to Amsterdam two years ago" Stacey sighed.

"Oh right, ok just write down that all the original members are here" I said to Mary Anne who dutifully began to scribble away using her bright pink feather pen.

"I'm not an original member Kristy, remember I joined a whole year after you guys" Abby pointed out raising her hand.

"Was it really a whole year?" Claudia asked.

"Um yeah, felt a lot longer though, it felt like ten years" Stacey sighed recoiling on my bed. For some reason that I really never got Stacey claimed that she was more comfortable on beds, she must have had a bad back.

"So what's the big emergency?" Abby asked.

"Cary Retlin spoke to me today, he claimed that the school president is embezzling money" I sighed and they all looked at me, Mary Anne burst into tears.

"Embezzling money? That's awful! It explains how all the funds from the dance committee disappeared," she wailed as Claudia handed her a tissue.

"We don't know if it's true or not, he said he's going to send me some files or something but I don't understand them at all" I began gesturing to my personal computer.

"I could take a look at them, I did get an A in my college level economics class" Stacey said.

"I thought you only got that A because you gave Steven O'Brien a lap dance so he'd do the final for you" Abby asked knowingly and Stacey laughed.

"Oh no that was for my English lit class! I'm actually good at math so I really don't need to do sexual favors" she smirked.

"Fine go nuts" I said gesturing to my computer, and she rolled off my bed carefully in order to make sure her mini pink cheerleader style skirt didn't ride up.

"Well what are we supposed to do while she's busy doing the math thing?" Claudia asked obviously sounding bored.

"What ever you do, do it some where else, you can't expect me to solve a mathematical theory while she's crying" Stacey said tensely.

In the end we decided to get a snack, food was the only thing that could stop Mary Anne when she was in the middle of a hysterical fit.

Those who were regulars at my house knew that when you wanted to eat a snack it could be likened to climbing Mount Everest. In case you didn't know I live in a mansion, well it's my stepfather's mansion actually but you get the point. Before you start accusing me of things I'm not a poor little rich girl, my mothers only been married to Watson for three years. Before then my family lived in a tiny house and I had to baby-sit after school to earn enough money to buy my own baseball bat. Sometimes my brain still works on the "poverty" default and I find myself not buying things I need or want because I'm convinced I can't afford them.

It sounds pretty stupid I know.

Anyway because I live in a mansion it takes forever to get to the kitchen no matter what room you're currently in, unless of course you're in the downstairs bathroom. Then once you've managed to get down stairs you have to fight through my six siblings and stepsiblings in order to get to the fridge.

Yes I said six, as Abby once remarked it's like the Brady Bunch on crack.

Then if one had managed to fight through the Brady Bunch, one would have to go into the massive pantry in order to see if there was any food left. The best time to do this was right after school, mainly because no one had a chance to eat anything yet.

It was a full house on that particular day. My ten year old stepsister Karen and my ten year old brother David Michael were stopped over our dog Shannon arguing about what they should dress her as for the annual BSC dog parade.

I'd started it a few years ago as something fun for the kids to do but every since it had become an annual thing spawning more and more crazy and elaborate costumes every year.

"Shannon should be Hermione Granger, how could she be Harry Potter? She's a girl!" Karen shrieked.

"Harry is like the star of the movie Karen! No one will know who she is if we dress her up as Hermione" David Michael shot back.

"But Harry's lame! He's just the token character who has undergone NO character development in the entire series" Karen snarled, sometimes I worried about Karen.

Every one called her a genius but I suspected she had no idea what she was saying half the time.

"Yeah well Hermione is a nerd!" David Michael pointed out.

Meanwhile my adopted sister Emily Michelle (what is with my family and giving their kids two names?) and my step brother Andrew were indulging in their latest past time which was torturing Barbie dolls.

"We should give this one a hair cut! Make it bald!" Andrew cried and Emily gave him a lopsided five-year-old grin.

"Kay!" she said happily and they began to attack the dolls hair with their plastic butter knives.

"Wow it's a full house today" Abby remarked.

"God tell me about it, it seems the older they get the more destructive they get! Yesterday I found a ken doll shoved in the toaster," I said moving towards the fridge.

Mary Anne gave another dry sob and I wordlessly gave her a hunk of half eaten chocolate.

"I'm just sorry you guys but we worked so hard to earn that money from the car wash and the to think some one stole it! Oh god!" she shrieked bursting into a fresh wave of tears.

"Mary Anne maybe you should talk to your psychiatrist about adjusting your medication" Claudia said kindly.

"She's still on medication?" Abby whispered to me and I kicked her firmly in the shin before moving back to the fridge.

"Kristy make us a sandwich," David Michael said.

"You have two hands do it yourself" I pointed out, after all when I was ten I was cooking meals for David Michael, making a sandwich wasn't that difficult.

"I cant we're trying to figure out how to perm Shannon's hair" David Michael began.

"Oh that's easy, Dogs fur is much more thicker in texture then a humans so you'd need to use a curling iron and barb wire styling putty as apposed to traditional hair gel" Claudia explain and we all shot her a look.

"During freshmen year I did work experience for a dog grooming business" she explained.

"Kristy do you have any of that barbed wire stuff?" Karen asked.

"Karen I own a hair brush and about a million hair ties, I do not own fancy hair gel" I sighed wearily.

"Hold on I think I have some" Claudia said rummaging about the knap sack she wore over one shoulder; it was made out of a pair old jeans she'd sewn together.

"You carry barbed wire hair putty in your purse?" Mary Anne sniffed.

"A prepared girl carries a range of products with her at all times, now lets give this doggy a perm!" she said grinning at my brother and stepsister.

Shannon began to cry and being some one who'd suffered one of Claudia's makeovers I felt very very sympathetic towards her.

"So talk to me McGill, what's the verdict?" I asked as we re entered my bedroom, Claudia was still clutching onto a plate covered with fried chicken, milk duds and potato chips.

"Whoever did these accounts is an economic genius, no one could ever be this bad at Math unless they were very good at faking it" Stacey said staring at the spreadsheets.

"How so?" I asked.

"Some one is trying to hide the fact that they've been stealing money by making it seem that all the missing expenses are due to bad book keeping, I mean look at this it's been recorded that ten dollars has been spent on new sponges for the charity car wash over six hundred times, have you ever seen over six hundred sponges in the school?" Stacey asked.

I'd done the charity car wash a few times to raise money for the softball team and we'd been using the same tiny half ripped sponges for years.

"Hmm, continue" I said and Stacey nodded.

"They've also done a trick where on some pages it looks like there's been a budget approved for fifty clubs but on other pages there's only forty eight, you'd have to look really closely to spot it though" she said.

"So he's wiping out the budget of some of the clubs?" I asked.

"Yes and these other files that Cary sent you? They're details about expenses for a trip to Japan from the school president's personal computer and get this. Coincidently he has raised the exact same amount of money that has been stolen from the various clubs and organizations" Stacey finished solemnly.

"You're right that is a coincidence," I said grimly.

"I don't get it, why would the school president steal that much money? Why can't he just raise it himself?" Claudia asked.

"Because only official clubs and organizations can raise money for their groups and he's an individual! He couldn't raise the money himself so instead of getting a job he decided to steal it" I suddenly realized and I felt my stomach lurch.

"Are you sure Stacey? Absolutely sure?" I asked.

"Kristy when it comes to money this brain is never wrong, after all I can figure out any sales discount within twenty seconds" she said smugly tapping her curly blond head.

"Ok, fine, Claudia?" I asked and she looked up from where she was stuffing a milk dud fried chicken and potato chip sandwich into her mouth.

"Mmmph?" she asked gulping.

"Make the phone call," I snapped.

Claudia's cell phone address book was something of a legend at SHS. She'd been working on it since her freshmen year and now she had the phone number of every single person in our year and most of the seniors as well. It was a well known fact that for a case of peanut butter cups you could get her to give you the phone number of any boy you happened to have a crush on.

"It's ringing" she giggled clutching her bright red phone to her ear.

My own cell phone was still in its original silver case and I only had twenty phone numbers in it.

"Hi? Cary Retlin? This is Claudia Kishi!" she bubbled enthusiastically.

"Uh huh? Yeah I got your number at Grace Blumes sweet sixteenth.. So how are you?" she asked cocking her head to one side.

"Oh that's super! Yeah I'm doing good, oh my lord you have to come to my art exhibit next week! You like art right? Of course you do.. Uh huh" she began trailing off.

"Well it's on Thursday night at the museum, hmm OH GOOD! So I'll see you there Cary!" she beamed and then I shot her a frantic look.

"Oh don't hang up! I just remembered it was Kristy who wanted to talk to you," she giggled.

"Um maybe you'll have to ask her," she laughed handing the phone over.

"Hello?" I asked.

"So Claudia asked me to go to her exhibit huh?" I heard his voice drawl.

"Don't flatter yourself, she asked every one including the cafeteria ladies" I replied coolly.

"I assume this isn't a social call?" he asked and I entered my walk in closet in order to get some privacy.

"No it isn't, I've looked over the files and I believe you," I whispered into the phone.

"You understood the files? Last I checked you were failing Math," he pointed out.

"I wasn't failing, a C isn't failing," I pointed out.

"Yes but it's hardly good enough to understand economics" he said casually and I rolled my eyes.

"If you must know I got a friend whose good at Math to look at the numbers, happy NOW?" I barked.

"Ecstatic" he finished.

"So I guess this means I'll help you, why are you so interested in stopping this guy anyway?" I asked.

"I'm not but this girl I'm seeing happens to be on the dance committee, wouldn't want her favorite project ruined due to a lack of funds" he admitted.

"Girl that you're seeing? You are seeing a girl as in well seeing her?" I asked.

"Yes as in the dating sense, not the using my vision sense" he chuckled and my eyes trailed upwards falling on the winter coat.

"Oh, so who is it?" I asked.

"My you're such a gossip" he replied.

"I'm just asking out of curiosity," I said trailing off.

"Cokie Mason" he finished and I nearly dropped the phone.

It made sense in a sick universal fate way that my two greatest enemies would be off in broom closets making out, the idea of the two of them grinding together was enough to make me want to vomit and then die.

Obviously the universe was pissed off about something I had done in a past life.

"Cokie Mason huh? Guess you two must have a lot of fun standing around making fun of people" I finally said.

"No need to sound bitter just because you're on our list" I heard him reply.

"As long as I'm on the top" I said and then I cringed, I could not believe I'd just said that.

"Amusing Thomas, are you going to take the information to the student council?" he asked and I ran my hands through my hair.

"Yes I'll do it on Saturday, we have a meeting in the afternoon" I replied and their was a thudding sound on the door.

"Kristy what are you doing in there? Are you engaging in naughty phone sex?" Abby cried and I rolled my eyes.

"I have to go," I said crisply.

"Wait a second" he interjected.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Tell me how the meeting goes," he said and then he hung up. I found myself staring at the phone for a few seconds the number flashing on the screen. Then the number disappeared, replaced by Claudia's home screen which had a tiny version of the birth of Venus on it.

Slowly I opened the wardrobe door and glared at Abby who was giggling hysterically, I knew what I had to do.

The Student Council met every week but every month they also had an additional meeting, it was Jonathon's idea and it was designed for the members who had to miss a meeting due to other commitments. Every one was expected to show up, unless of course they wanted to be shunted off to the student court or worse kicked out of the council all together.

This month the meeting was being held on a Saturday afternoon, I knew because I had to skip softball practice.

I hated missing softball but we all had to make sacrifices.

The student council met in a much nicer room then the student court, for one thing no one had written anything about genitals across the front door. I held onto the presentation I'd made as I walked through the door nodding at my fellow council member Emily Bernstein.

"So I hear that Mathews shoved you into student court, tough break" she said sympathetically as she sat down next to me.

"It's not that bad, in fact I prefer to see it as a rewarding challenge" I said with a calm controlled smile. Emily and I had been sort of friends back in middle school but by our freshmen year we were bitter rivals. When the current BSC disbanded I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time on my hands. At first I spent it with Abby trying to antagonize as many people as possible but after the Cokie Mason incident I threw myself into extra curricular activities. Emily had spent middle school being the queen of the school paper and the yearbook and needless to say she wasn't willing to share.

"Challenge? You call watching Rick Chow and that Greg guy playing video games a challenge? It just so happens that I'm doing something worthwhile" Emily said with false sympathy.

"Oh really Emily? What's your student council project then?" I asked and she smirked.

"We're organizing a rock concert to raise money for the tsunami crisis," she said.

"But that happened four months ago" I pointed out.

"Yeah well it took a long time to file the paper work and get approval," she snapped and I sank into my seat waiting for the meeting to begin.

The student council meetings followed a very strict format that Jonathon had devised as soon as he'd become the president. They began with him reading out the crucial points from the last meeting, he would then read out a speech of his own devising about the future plans he had for the school. Back before I knew he was evil I'd admired the way he'd managed to get the members to listen to him. Now however I found myself listening to the whole speech critically a sinking feeling forming in my stomach.

It was the sort of sinking feeling that one got when an amateur met their master; Jonathon was brilliant at bossing people about without actually promising anything at all. He spoke of sacrifices that needed to be made in order for the school to have representatives who could properly show the world what SHS was made of, beside me Emily was nodding a small smile on her face.

But I knew what sacrifice he was referring to and I realized I was making annoyed growling sounds deep within my throat.

'"Shhh" hissed Emily and I folded my arms trying to control my rage.

"Now has anyone got any new proposals?" Jonathon asked and I jumped up.

"I have a new proposal Jonathon," I said and he eyed me doubtfully.

"You have a new proposal? A student court proposal?" he asked his lips twitching into an almost smile.

"Yes, all student council members are allowed to make a proposal, this shouldn't take long" I said marching up to the podium.

I knocked Jonathon aside who was staring at me with a suspicious expression on his face.

"Members of the council, teachers and fellow students, I come here today to not speak about new uniforms for the softball team or rock concerts for third world countries" I said shooting Emily a knowing look.

"I come here to speak to you about a crime that's been committed, right underneath our noses" I continued.

"Now Kristy.." Jonathon began.

"There will be no questions until the end of my speech" I smiled sweetly and he stepped away looking pale.

" I know that several of you are in fact representatives from various school organizations, how many of you have noticed a slight dip in your budgets this semester?" I asked.

Emily Bernstein glanced around and reluctantly raised her hand, followed by the captain of the chess team, the president of the Spanish club and the leader of the swim team.

"It's not because the school has needed to tighten it's budget like some of you may believe, rather a member of our council has been using their power to embezzle fundraising money which was earned to assist our clubs and activities" I said dramatically. There were several murmurs and Vice Principal Brown stood up.

"Miss Thomas these are very serious allegations, where did you get this information?" she asked.

"It's available to anyone who has a computer," I said and then I picked up the photocopied spreadsheets I'd made which had the numbers Stacey had calculated

"I had a economics honor student take a look at them Vice Principal Brown and the figures are shocking" I said handing her the spreadsheet.

She stared at it for a moment her thin brown painted lips smacking together with outrage.

"This doesn't look right at all! But I trust your judgment Miss Thomas, you have after all turned yourself around this year and become an excellent student" Principal Brown muttered and she narrowed her blood shot eyes.

"So whose responsible?" she asked.

"Yeah Kristy, I want to know so I can rip there heads off! We actually had to print the year book in soft cover this year" Emily cried.

I stared at the council who were looking at me with a mixture of confusion and outraged anger.

This was it, the moment I either made or broke my political career.

I breathed in deeply summoning my inner babysitter.

"The person responsible is.." I began but the name was drowned out as the fire alarm went off.

It turned out that the school was surprisingly full for the Saturday afternoon, the gamers club was meeting in the computer lab along with the kids who were in the auditorium practicing for the spring school musical.

Then there were the members of the student council, all of us ended up stampeding through the school, dripping wet due to the sprinkler system.

Five minutes later I found myself clutching onto my presentation my dripping wet hair falling out of my ponytail.

I groaned, the pieces of paper were now ink-covered mush and I'd wasted all the ink in my printer running the presentation off.

Around me students were filing about and I watched as smoke curled out of the basement.

"What happened?" Jonathon Mathews asked sidling up next to me. I stared at him wondering why on earth he was speaking to me, after all he knew I was going to expose him for the crook he was.

"Well I think it's obvious that some one started a fire, or at least pulled the alarm," I pointed out with a forced smile.

"I know and right in the middle of your presentation," he said sympathetically and he eyed me up and down his eyes hovering on my wet alien loves predator t-shirt.

"I'll tell every one on Tuesday when we have our next meeting, it's no big," I said undoing my ponytail.

"Or you could just tell me in person, I am after all the student body president" he said as I wrung the water out of my hair.

"Excuse me?" I asked flipping the wet rat tails over one shoulder.

"I said you could tell me who was responsible, we could discuss it over dinner tonight" he said and I blinked rapidly unable to comprehend what was being said.

For a second I was sure I hadn't heard him right, no boy had ever asked me to dinner. I'd been asked to baseball basketball and football games but never ever dinner, I wasn't that kind of girl.

"Dinner?" I asked.

"Well we've already missed lunch and I have several matters I need to deal with," he said and I continued to blink slowly my brain still working in autopilot mode.

"You want to discuss a student council matter over dinner? Why?" I asked.

"I rarely get to socialize, this would be like killing two birds with one stone," he said and then he eyed me thoughtfully.

"And from what I've seen Thomas you rarely socialize either" he pointed out.

" No I just rarely associate with thieves and liars," I said smugly.

"Thankfully I'm neither one of those things" he said his eyes still hovering on my t-shirt.

"Oh really?" I asked with a small tight smile.

"Yes really, haven't you ever heard of misunderstandings? Innocent until proven guilty, or a chance for the accused to defend themselves?" he asked and he looked well assured of himself but he also looked sincere.

Back before my friend Dawn Schafer ran away to Amsterdam she'd been obsessed with dissecting our personalities based upon astrology. According to Dawn my sun or moon ascended in the house of Libra which meant that although I was stubborn I had a need to seek justice and attempt to see the world from multiple perspectives. I said that I saw the world from multiple perspectives because my family was filled with multiple perspectives . Dawn just gave me a vague smile and poured me another cup of foul tasting green tea.

But for a fraction of a moment I found my self-staring at Jonathon wondering if perhaps I was wrong. After all Cary Retlin was notorious for causing trouble and he could have faked the evidence, but then again Jonathon was a politician, which automatically meant he couldn't be trusted.

I knew from past experience that when punishing several children a babysitter needed to consider both stories.

I needed to hear about his side of things.

"Fine, where and when" I said and he almost smiled.

"My family has it's own table at the local country club" he began and I raised my eyebrows.

"Country club huh? Impressive" I remarked.

"No need to sound so crude, you too come from a privileged family" he began and I instantly despised that notion but I knew that if I wanted to discover the truth I would have to for once keep my opinions to myself.

"Fine pick me up at seven, you know where I live right?" I asked.

"Of course I do, every one knows where Kristy Thomas lives," he said.

One of the things I've learned during my first sixteenth years of life is that the only way to truly get warm after being hit by cold water is to drown yourself in hot water. Bubble baths were the best ones of course, which was why I lay in the mansions spa while I talked to Mary Anne on the phone.

"So you're going to dinner with him?" she asked.

"I figure that the least I can do is let him either admit that he committed the crime or try to prove his innocence," I said flexing my feet in the water.

"Well yeah but some one stole the money we both know that" Mary Anne began.

"I know but Jonathon said that his family are country club members, why would a kid whose parents can afford membership need to steal spending money for a trip to Japan?" I asked and Mary Anne sighed.

"Maybe he didn't steal it because he needed to maybe he did it because he wanted to" she suggested

"Was that actual cynicism from Mary Anne? I am shocked and appalled," I laughed.

"I'm not being cynical I'm just trying to think, some people like to steal for the attention" she pointed out and I nodded.

"But whoever stole the money did it in a way that was not attention grabbing" I argued as I crawled out of the spa balancing the phone between my ear and shoulder.

"I know the whole thing is really weird but I know you can solve this Kristy, so what are you going to wear?" she asked.

"Wear? I don't know a shirt I guess," I admitted.

"You can't wear that to a country club Kristy, do you still have all those nice clothes your mum gave you for your birthday?" Mary Anne asked.

"You mean the torture devices?" I groaned shrugging on my dressing gown.

"A skirt isn't a torture device Kristy, can you turn on your computer and set up your web cam? I want to see what outfits you have" Mary Anne began.

"Since when do you care about clothes?" I asked as I trotted out of the bathroom and back towards my bedroom.

"I care a little bit and that isn't such a bad thing, I mean you don't really want to follow Claudia's fashion advice if you're going to a country club but my look is pretty preppy so I think I can help you find something appropriate" she said.

"Well why can't you just come over and pick something?" I groaned.

"Cant, I'm supposed to be studying for my English in class assignment on Monday" Mary Anne groaned.

"Fine I'm switching on my computer happy now?" I asked indulgently and I moved to the wardrobe hunting around for the clothes my mother had bought me for my birthday.

A lot of people seemed obsessed with criticizing my fashion sense, which was in the end annoying. After all I'd made great strides when you considered what I wore in high school, my jeans were after all fitted dark denim now with out holes. I wore woman shirts as apposed to sweaters that once belonged to my brother Sam and I no longer constantly scraped my hair into a ponytail. Of course people like Claudia and my mother were still obsessed that there was a super model inside of me waiting to crawl out, I'd been attacked several times by Claudia's lip gloss wand until I started applying it myself in order to make her leave me alone.

To make matters worse my mother was obsessed with buying me new clothes every Christmas and every birthday, I rarely if ever wore them. For my last birthday she had bought me a dress, an actual dress.

It was black and knee length with no sleeves and a low neckline, but it was still a dress.

I stared at it doubtfully; black I suppose was safe, black was professional.

"Right I'll just turn msn and my web cam on ok?" I said on the phone.

"Sure, ugh Logan happens to be online remind me to block him" Mary Anne sighed.

"Are you two still fighting? Its been three years Mary Anne" I pointed out, but then again it was always bitter when you broke up with your first serious boyfriend.

Not that I would know considering I'd never had a serious boyfriend but I'd seen it happen to me friends countless times.

"No It's just his grammar, it really is terrible and it's not like he has learning difficulties like Claudia" Mary Anne said with a small sob as I connected there web cam.

"Ok so what do you think about this?" I said holding up my black dress in front of the computer screen.

"I cant see anything Kristy just a big patch of black" Mary Anne pointed out and I took a few steps backwards.

"Now?" I asked irritably.

"Try it on first" Mary Anne advised me and I tossed the phone on the bed before disappearing into my walk in closet.

After several seconds of frantic pulling I managed to shimmy myself into the dress and I hopped towards the bed.

"Ok now?" I asked into the phone while I stood in front of the computer.

"Oh yes, Stacey would say that you look really sophisticated" giggled Mary Anne.

"Has it ever occurred to you that sophisticated might actually be a code word for skanky?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"Well you all keep calling Stacey sophisticated and yesterday she was lounging around on my bed in a see through blouse and a red lacey bra" I pointed out.

"Well in this case I mean sophisticated like Audrey Hepburn in breakfast in Tiffany's" Mary Anne gushed.

"She played an escort in that movie" I sighed.

"Yes but a glamorous hooker" Mary Anne argued.

I spun around the dresses fabric gently swishing against my legs, it wasn't that bad, it covered most of my bits without making me either look like a crack whore or a nun, my spin was interrupted however by a familiar beeping sound.

"Hold on Mary Anne I have call waiting" I said.

"Hello Brewer residence, Kristy Thomas speaking" I said in my polite yet firm talking to adults voice.

"Wow I had no idea that you were working part time as a Butler, say that line again but this time with a British accent" some one snickered on the other end and I sat on my computer chair.

"Whose this?" I asked suspiciously.

"Guess" the voice taunted.

"Sam?" I ventured, the voice did sound familiar in a sarcastic way and it was one of the weird stunts my brother would pull.

"I'm not your older brother Thomas, really your usually much better at solving mysteries," he laughed again and I felt my fingernails dig into my palm.

"Cary Retlin" I said with a forced angry smile.

"Bingo Thomas" he replied.

"How did you get my phone number? It's not listed," I snapped.

"You're not the only one who knows about Claudia Kishi's address book, I gave her a bag of Twinkies and she sang like a bird," he informed me as if he was proud of himself.

"She didn't sing that loudly, I notice you haven't got my cell phone number," I said and my computer screen lit up, Mary Anne had sent me an instant message asking me who was on the phone.

"Oh she wouldn't let me have that much information, she claims that she doesn't trust me and I really can't imagine why" he said sounding as if he was hurt by the suggestion but I knew better.

"It's probably because you're a smarmy two faced smart ass with a hidden agenda," I said sweetly as I typed an answer for Mary Anne.

"I'm hurt Thomas, here I was trying to be a nice guy and you attacked me" he sighed.

"Since when are you a nice guy? No wait don't answer that" I snapped my eyes staring at the screen.

" You know I have no idea what I did to offend you Thomas but I suggest you double your dosage and get over it" he replied.

"If you can't think of what you did to offend me Retlin then you're not as smart as you think you are," I snapped.

"How do you know how smart I think I am?" he taunted me and I sighed feeling a migraine coming on.

"What do you want Retlin?" I asked wearily.

"What do I want? I can't call a friend without being accused of wanting something?" he asked me again putting on his sincere smarmy voice.

"You could but we're not friends, you ignored me for two years remember?" I said and for a second I was sure I could hear a hitch in his breath, but whatever it was the moment passed with out incident.

"How did the meeting go?" he finally asked, sounding serious.

"Well I was able to convince the student council that some one was stealing money, but before I could name anyone the fire alarm was pulled," I explained.

"How convenient" he said.

"Anyway I'm going to have a talk with Jonathon tonight, maybe I can get to the bottom of this and if he's responsible I can convince him to give the money back" I said warily.

"You're kidding right?" he asked.

"Look you told me to try to handle things and the student court can't just punish people before hearing their side" I pointed out and I heard a disapproving tongue clicking sound.

"And here I thought that you went the sort of girl to fall for that kind of bull shit Thomas" he snorted.

"Bull shit?" I asked coldly.

"Oh come on he's not going to confess anything, instead his going to take you out and win you over so you'll forget about everything" he said in a patronizing tone of voice.

"Oh please you could at least give me a little bit of credit," I snorted.

"He knows how to win over girls like you," he warned me but instead of hearing it I heard an insult.

"What do you mean by girls like me?" I asked my voice neutral.

"Lonely girls, the kind that never have real boyfriends" he said sounding embarrassed. I realized I was still staring at my web cam and my expression was hurt.

Just because something was true it didn't mean you want to hear it, especially from some one you hated.

"Is it so strange that he wants to spend time with me," I yelled and I expected him to yell back but there was a deep sigh.

"Sure whatever, keep telling yourself that?" he drawled.

"Oh and what are your plans tonight Cary? Are you going to go screw Cokie Mason in the back of your dads station wagon?" I asked.

"Here Berina actually" he replied and I pressed on the call cancel button before throwing the phone onto my bed.

The computer screen was still flashing; Mary Anne had sent me another message. She must have seen my expression on the web cam which looked like some one had kicked me in the stomach.

"Are you ok?" it asked I realized I wasn't ok, not at all.


	4. A theory of man and woman

Chapter four: A theory of man and woman.

A/N I would love to say a big thank you to the nine people who reviewed the first three chapters of Rayd8ther. I actually began this story after talking to the very nice author of Amsterdam Amsterdam but I never really thought I'd keep going like this. I must say the story is now completely different from the way I originally conceived it. At first I thought it's sense of humor would be something on the warped parody side of things but then Kristy took off on her own and now, fell now you can see what it's like.

Also to answer a questions.

Zshp: (Is your name referring to Zach Smith from Harry Potter by any chance?) Will Cary and Kristy hook up in the end? Well that would be spoiling things now wont it? This chapter might please you a little but they have a lot of things to work through before they'll reach happily every after.

I don't own the BSC Anne M Martin does, however I do own Jonathon Mathews.

After Abby had solved the mystery involving the secret society I'd never bothered to go to the country club again. My brief interest in golf had passed once I realized you couldn't really run during it, sport should be energetic and loud not quiet and well boring.

Besides as Charlie often remarked you could take the Thomas family out of poverty but you can't take poverty out of the Thomas family. Going to the country club just didn't feel right, maybe because I knew perfectly well that if mom had never remarried we wouldn't have been able to afford membership.

Whenever I needed to have a discussion with some one I'd prefer to do it on my own territory, preferably in a fast food restaurant.

I knew that Jonathon was the same, which was why he'd taken me to his territory it was all about him.

"That dress really is appropriate Kristin, I must confessed I was concerned that you would attempt to leave in one of those shirt things you seem so fond of" he said to me as we entered the restaurant.

"Shirt thing?" I asked doubtfully.

"Oh well occasionally it's good to bother to dress up, it shows that you respect the people you socialize with" he continued and I shot him a dubious look as one of the fancy waiters sat me down.

"Where did you get that from? One of those weird how to make friends books from the fifties?" I asked.

"Actually it was published during the six….ah I see the infamous Kristin sense of humor" he smiled and he said something to the waiter in French.

"Ah very good sir" said the waiter and he bowed before disappearing.

"Actually my name is Kristy," I said with a forced smile that looked more like a grimace.

"Kristy isn't a name, it's a diminutive" he shot back with his own tense smile.

"I guess that nobody calls you Johnny then" I said airily.

"Not since I was five, can I offer you a drink? Some wine perhaps?" he asked when the waiter returned.

"I'm sixteen" pointed out.

"And?" he questioned as if under age drinking was perfectly normal.

"It's illegal," I continued.

"Kristin this is different from drinking luke warm wine coolers in the garage of some party, the wine is used to accentuate the flavor of the meal" he said.

"And the staff of this club don't mind accentuating crime?" I asked.

"I'm eighteen Kristy I'm an adult," he pointed out.

"That doesn't change the fact that the legal drinking age is twenty one" I sniffed.

"That's the legal age for purchasing alcohol and this entire meal will be credited to my fathers account," he said calmly.

"I'll have a mineral water," I said to the waiter.

"Very well" Jonathon said.

I lasted until the third course and then I cracked, I was unable to handle being socially nice any more. I poked my dinner, which looked, suspiciously like cat brains and eggs while Jonathon sipped his third glass of wine.

"Now that your well mellow lets talk business" I said and he licked his drying lips.

"Business?" he asked.

"Yes, the stolen money" I said stabbing my dinner.

"Yes about that, you said that you had a math honor student look at the figures and you do not take advanced mathematics" he began.

"My friend Stacey McGill does" I interrupted him.

"Stacey McGill? Isn't she the blond girl who was involved in that incident where she used sexual favors in order to pass her freshmen year?" he asked.

"That was a long time ago after all when I was a freshmen I was famous for getting into fights," I pointed out.

"Still it's a little hard to take her opinion seriously, you will need to get the figures verified by another source," he said still studying me carefully.

"Why would it be hard to take her seriously? Stacey may be a bit. Fast but she's still a good economics student," I pointed out.

"The teachers will see it differently," he said and I dropped my fork onto my plate with a clatter, it took all my self-control to stop myself from stabbing him.

"I have to go the ladies, I'll be right back," I said instead and he smiled triumphantly knowing he had won.

I didn't really need to go to the bathroom; I'd gone before I'd left the house. But I did need to think; I was starting to realize with cold hard clarity that Cary was right. Jonathon wasn't innocent at all, he was trying to hard to distract me and he was throwing one of my friends into the mud slinging.

I found myself staring at my reflection in the mirror while I used breathing exercises I'd learned during track practice to calm myself down. When my mother had caught me in my room wearing an actual dress she'd nearly had a heart attack, she'd insisted on lending me the pearl necklace Nanny had given her when she'd graduated from college. It seemed like such a waste, wearing something so important for such a sleaze. I never really though about the pearls but I would have wanted to wear them for the first time in front of some one who wasn't completely dishonest.

"Kristy?" a voice asked behind me and I hesitated.

"Kristy Thomas, Darling! Is that you?" an upper crust young ladies voice asked. I slowly turned. A painfully thin teenage girl was staring at me, clutching onto a red purse. I didn't recognize it but if Stacey had been there she would have told me it was prada. The girl was dressed in a coffee colored slip of chest plunging silk with her auburn hair swept into an elegant French knot at the base of her neck. Despite all of this there was something almost familiar about the snooty way she gazed at the slight smirk and me on her gold brown painted lips.

"Greer?" I asked and she slowly nodded, it was Greer Carson my neighbor Shannon's former best friend.

Greer and I had a tense relationship, she was after all a snob and I was a normal human being. She'd been friends with Shannon for years until they'd drifted apart; Shannon was devoting herself to her schoolwork while Greer became obsessed with climbing the Stoneybrook social ladder. She was the nearest thing our town had to Paris Hilton, minus the dirty whore factor, mostly.

"Darling I almost didn't recognize you without your usual jeans and baseball hat! You look fantastic" she said sweeping upon me in a cloud of guchi envy.

"Yes and you look so.. Shiny" I said trying to think of something to say.

"Why thank you! Really it's been ages since I've seen you Kristy what with me being busy attending all the best parties in New York and you being busy attending to squealing infants" she said.

"And it's fantastic knowing that you are as snobby as ever" I grinned and she laughed.

"Well if you're calling me a snob I must be doing something right Kristy darling, now was it just me or did I spy you having dinner with Jonathon Mathews?" she asked her voice sounding almost concerned.

"Well you did but it's not a date, we're just having a meeting," I said firmly.

"Oh thank goodness! He only takes girls to the country club because he cant afford to take them anywhere else!" Greer whispered.

"I thought his parents were wealthy," I said with confusion.

"Oh they are but he isn't! There was some sort of scandal around four years ago before he moved to Stoneybrook and they put him on a very limited allowance" Greer said.

"What kind of scandal?" I asked.

"Oh no idea, most likely involving drugs or sex! You know the usual," she laughed and then she patted her gloved hands against her hair.

"Now I have to go, George is waiting for me," she said shooting me several air kisses, which smelt suspiciously like cranberry ice cocktails.

"Well, that was interesting" I said to myself.

By the time I returned to my table Jonathon was on his fourth illegal glass of wine and he was most likely entering the tipsy department.

Good I thought, drunken people often confessed things.

I carefully reached into my purse and switched on my cell phones voice recorder while pretending to send a text message.

"I was thinking about what you said, about getting some one else to check the books," I said.

"Hmm" he began.

"Well what if they find something wrong?" I continued and he smacked his lips together.

"We'll have to give Brown a name, it wouldn't do to hand over a member of the council after all," he said thoughtfully.

"A name?" I asked warily.

"Oh yes, any name will do.. Of course it would have to be some one good at computers and numbers, some one who could easily creep into the system and steal without any of us noticing" he began and then he smirked.

"Some one who was able to get past my passwords and hack into my computer account" he continued and I stared at my cold grayish meal.

"Some one like Cary" I realized.

"You said it" he smiled.

"But he didn't do it" I said staring at his slightly unfocussed eyes.

"Does it really matter if he did or not? The world wants to believe he did it Kristin, I think that you partially want to believe it as well" he continued.

"No" I snapped.

"Greg from the student court mentioned something interesting, he said you were investigating Cary Retlin and his involvement in the pranks that occurred last year.. Obviously you know what his capable of" Jonathon argued.

"Setting dogs loose is different from stealing money" I pointed out.

"They're both illegal" he said.

"So is drinking underage, it seems a lot of things are illegal" I smirked but then I stopped when he grabbed onto my hand his fingers pressing against my wrist.

"Are you really that righteous Thomas? Because politics don't work that way and you don't want to take me down" he said dangerously and I twisted my hand out of his grip.

"You're crazy! You're not god you know, you're just some student body president and you will not scare me into selling out Cary" I said picking up my purse.

"And where do you think your going?" he asked as I stood up.

"I'm going home, good luck driving drunk" I scowled.

More then anything I wanted to be home in bed wearing my favorite holey old jeans and my comfortable red sweat shirt. I wanted to be watching the sports channel with Abby or helping Emily Michelle destroy her Barbie dolls. Instead I found myself walking around the country clubs car park holding onto my jacket in the chilly spring air. I didn't really expect Jonathon to chase after me; he was too far-gone for that. But in the end part of me really didn't expect him to be so conniving or twisted either, I honestly didn't think that he really had it in him.

The car park was filled with the valets collecting and parking cars and I picked out my cell phone, the voice recording option was still on.

There was no one I could call, mom and Watson were out at the theatre which meant they would have their phones switched off, Sam was at home watching the kids but he didn't have a car and Charlie was at Reed university which was a whole state away. My mind ran a quick mental check going over who I knew who had a car, Mary Anne wasn't allowed to drive around by herself, Claudia had failed her test the first time, Abby had never gotten a car, Stacey..

"Stacey" I said to myself with a small smile, her father had bought her a car for her sixteenth birthday.

"Hello Stacey?" I asked as soon as I rang the number.

"Kristy! Why are you calling from your cell phone? You never use it unless you're going out," Stacey said and I heard the distant sound of pop music followed by smashing glass.

"I am out, that's the problem," I said meaningfully.

"Are you stuck some where? Do you need me to give you a ride?" Stacey asked.

"Yes" I admitted.

"Where are you?" she finally said sounding resigned.

"The country club" I said and she gasped.

"What were you doing there?" she asked and I realized I would have to explain the whole horrible affair with Mathews.

"So he started drinking in the middle of your date and then he threatened you? Don't let it upset you Kristy that kind of stuff happens all the time," she said sounding bitter.

"It doe's?" I asked uneasily.

"Yeah but you did the right thing by calling me before he did anything" she said sounding almost proud.

"So can you come and get me?" I asked.

"I'll have to find some one sober to drive us, at the moment I'm at this wild party Cokie Mason is throwing and my ride is completely wasted" Stacey said and I imagined a drunk driver careening towards the country club.

"How are you going to manage that?" I asked.

"I'll just grab some one whose just arrived, they wont have time to get drunk" Stacey said as if it was very simple.

"Hold on I can see some one," she said and she ran towards the door, I heard muffled voices followed by some one laughing.

"Right Kristy we'll be there in ten minutes, standing outside the fountain ok?" Stacey said and then she hung up before I could ask who was giving her a ride.

Ten minutes later the identity of the driver was revealed, to my credit I was calm and controlled and I didn't start screaming cuss words. Stacey dressed in a pair of skintight leather pants and a silvery shirt shot me an apologetic look from behind Cary Retlin.

"So I see that things didn't work out," he said, he was dressed in what I assumed were his party clothes. This meant that he'd added some sort of old fashioned pin stripe blazer on top of his The Used T shirt, with bowler hat stuck firmly on his head.

"I'm sorry about dragging you away from the party, can you give me a ride?" I asked wearily, not in the mood to argue with him.

He stared at me for a few seconds as if shocked that I'd be so easily defeated.

"Sure, the cars this way" he said jerking his head.

"I'm sorry about this" Stacey whispered to me as I watched Cary stalk off without saying a word.

"It's not your fault, I think his just pissed off because I hung up on him" I whispered back.

"You did?" Stacey asked raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah I said some things and then he.. Well you know how it is," I admitted.

"Weird" Stacey mused.

"Weird?" I said echoing her.

"Well he offered to pick you up, I asked Rick Chow because I knew you were both doing that student court thing together but Cary came in the same time he did and he said he'd do it" Stacey whispered back and Cary glanced over his shoulders.

"Will you two stop gossiping and hurry up? I have a party to get back to" he said an irritated expression on his face.

I'd seen that expression before, back in the eighth grade when I accused him of vandalism and when I'd read his journal. It was his "I'm disgusted with you Kristy Thomas" expression and it always made me feel lower then dirt.

But if he was so mad at me why would he leave his girlfriends party to rescue me? I never understood boys.

"If you're going to start dating guys seriously Kristy I suggest you put a cab companies number into your speed dial and carry some extra money with you all the time" Stacey finally said as we approached a car which looked worse then Charlie's old rust bucket.

"I wasn't dating him, it was a meeting" I sighed.

"Which explains why you look like Holly Golightly" Cary said unlocking his car and Stacey giggled.

"Is that some kind of porn star?" I whispered to Stacey.

"No it's the character Audrey Hepburn played in Breakfast at Tiffanies" Stacey explained.

"Oh, well it was Mary Anne who talked me into wearing this" I admitted.

"Sounds like her, you should be lucky she didn't talk you into wearing a frilly pink party dress" Stacey mused.

"Thankfully no frilly pink party dresses reside in my wardrobe" I smirked.

"The day I see you in a frilly pink dress will be the same day the earth spins out of its orbit and crashes into the sun" Cary remarked dryly as he slid into his seat.

And those were the last words spoken for quite awhile.

Much later when I was alone in my bed I would wonder why I'd been so quiet in the car. I guess that the logical explanation was that I was embarrassed, Cary had warned me about Jonathon but instead of listening to him I'd called him names hung up on him and then I went out and made a fool of myself.

Then he had to come and rescue me, I've never been a damsel in distress kind of girl and the thought of it was too humiliating for words.

"Are you ok? You're being so quiet and you haven't said anything rude about anyone for at least ten minutes" Stacey asked me from where she was sitting in the front seat.

"I'm listening to the radio" I replied staring at the dark streets of Stoneybrook through my window.

"Since when do you like Ashley Simpson?" Stacey asked.

"I don't but David Bowie might come up, maybe" I lied quickly, Karen had gotten me addicted to the glam rock singer after forcing me to watch the movie the Labyrinth.

"I doubt the local station would play obscure pop punk songs about Ziggy Stardust," Cary said from behind his wheel.

"Hmm and you seemed like such an emo guy" I muttered under my breath.

"I'm not emo," he said defensively.

"You wear ratty clothes with band t shirts and black nail polish and you're apathetic towards everything, your emo" I replied folding my arms.

"Nice to know you've summed up my entire personality based on my nail polish" he mused.

"That's the best way to sum some one up, take me for example, red nails but professionally manicured this speaks that I'm both sexy and yet stylish" Stacey said waving her nails in the air.

"Cokie Mason on the other hand has pink nails chipped, which means she tries to look good but fails miserably and Kristy has nails without polish but still filed, this means she cares about being presentable but not about being flashy and stylish" Stacey said glancing over her shoulder at me.

"You should write a book about that McGill, you could market it as one of those weird self help books and make a fortune," he said.

"Hmm like those really weird ones you find in book stores that tell you what kind of lover you are by the way you unwrap a candy bar" I smirked.

"Yeah like if you crush it up you're apparently really bad in bed" I heard Cary continue.

"Or if you delicately peel it off you're all romantic and lovey dovey" I laughed and I realized after a second that we were both laughing, I instantly stopped.

Cary and I were not supposed to laugh about the same things.

"It's not that funny, manicures are deadly serious you know" Stacey pouted folding her arms and then her head cocked towards me.

"You never told me how your talk to the student council went, did you tell them about the numbers?" Stacey asked and I stared at my lap uneasily.

"Well yeah but Jonathon said if I wanted to be taken seriously I should let another person look over the records" I said trying to be tactful but it was obvious by Stacey's expression that I had failed.

"I happen to be the second best economics student in our year Kristy, does he think that I can't do it because I don't wear a pocket protector and boys like me?" she growled.

"I never said that! I was just repeating what Jonathon said," I protested.

"That asshole, I mean not all of us are Cokie Mason's" she snorted and I coughed violently.

"Why are you coughing?" Stacey asked.

"Because you're trashing out the girlfriend of the guy whose driving us Stacey," I pointed out tilting my head towards our driver.

"You're dating Cokie Mason?" Stacey asked sounding vaguely horrified and Cary laughed, actually laughed.

"Thomas is making it sound like a bigger deal then what it really is," he said as if that resolved the matter.

"Well if some one called my boyfriend stupid in front of me I'd be pissed off" I said.

"But she is stupid, I'm not going to get mad at Stacey for telling the truth" Cary said flippantly as if he didn't care about Cokie's feelings in the least.

Stacey and I exchanged a look, either Cary was a really bad boyfriend or something weird was going on.

"You should come back with me to the party Kristy I mean you need to get this whole thing out of your system" Stacey said.

"You just want to go back to the party don't you?" I asked knowingly.

"Come on Kristy if you're worried about a ride home you can stay over at my house, it's not that far away and we can walk home" Stacey pleaded.

"Why do you want me to come? You never invite me to any of these wild parties," I pointed out.

"Because I want to actually talk to some one who wont end up throwing up in a toilet bowl, come on Kristy you don't want to spend your night rescuing Emily Michelle's babies from the toilet again?" Stacey pleaded and Cary snorted with laughter.

"It happened once, six months ago, anyway this parties being thrown at Cokie's and I doubt she'll be pleased if I show up," I pointed out.

"There are so many people there she wont even see you, are you going to make a decision or not Thomas because I'm getting sick and tired of going around in circles" Cary drawled and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine I'm going to this stupid party, I mean I'm already wearing a god damned dress," I snarled and Stacey grinned.

"That's the spirit!" she smiled.

Over an hour later I found myself still nursing the first Bacardi Breezer some senior had shoved in my hand the moment I'd walked in the door. Stacey had hissed a firm warning not to drink anything I hadn't gotten from the fridge myself because Pete Black was on the prowl; he'd graduated from snapping bra straps to rumor had it spiking drinks although no one could prove it was him.

She'd then disappeared in order to socialize with the cheerleaders and I found myself sitting next to Erica Blumberg, and Shawna Riverson who demanded to know why I'd made an appearance at a Cokie Mason party.

The conversation began like this.

"OH MY GOD, KRISTY? OH MY GOD YOU ARE WEARING A DRESS" Shawna screamed over Britney Spears.

"Oh my god you're retarded" I snapped and she laughed.

"No seriously girl what the fuck are you doing here? You never come to parties!" she cried.

"I'm here with Stacey"

"Oh my god she is such a skank, I heard she did these things with chopsticks" Shawna began.

"You didn't come here with Stacey, she arrived earlier" Erica said and I paused.

"She kinda rescued me, see I went out for a dinner meeting with the student body president and he got drunk" I began and they leaned forward eagerly.

"You went out with the student body president? OH MY GOD" Shawna cried.

"I didn't go out with him like that! It wasn't a date we just needed to discuss something," I protested.

There are several important lessons that every girl needs to learn in high school, one of the first is how to deal with a gossip hound. Dealing with one gossip hound is easy enough, after all Abby when in the right sort of mood could be one herself. Dealing with two however was far more difficult especially when they were friends, they knew how to work together and how to ask all the right sort of questions until you found yourself admitting to stuff you would normally never confess.

Some how I managed to tell them the entire story, leaving out a few convenient details such as me breaking into the school and Cary having my shoe.

By the time I'd finished I'd realized that I'd gathered a small crowd and they were all staring at my intensely.

"So let me get this right the student body president stole money and when you tried to stop him he said he'd pin all the blame on Retlin?" one of Stacey's ex boyfriends Jeremy said an awe struck expression on his face.

"You were so cool Kristy, I mean I always thought you were this uptight snobby dictator with no sense of fun but you stood up to the president!" Erica cried.

" You know I heard a rumor that nobody voted for him as class president, that the teachers gave him the role because they didn't want that Goth girl to win" Pete Black said hovering suspiciously over Grace Blume's drink.

"We like totally have to do something, get him kicked out or whatever," Grace said spilling her drink on the carpet after glaring at Pete.

"It wouldn't work, the only time a president has been successfully kicked out of the student council was when every single member of the student body signed a petition demanding that he should be removed, that was in Stanley versus the school board in nineteen eighty seven" I explained.

"Well we could do the petition" Robert said with a grin.

"There are over a thousand students at SHS how are we supposed to get them to sign it without rousing his suspicion?" I asked and Shawna grinned.

"Kristy we are like popular, we could get every one to set fire to their pants if we wanted too" she grinned.

"Not that we would because then they'd be on fire" Grace said, sometimes I really despaired for the future state of humanity.

"Cokie has a computer in her dads office, we should type out the petition there and send it out as a mass email" Erica who seemed like the smartest person in the room said.

The thought of touching anything that had Cokie's DNA on it made me want to vomit but I was furious with Jonathon and when Kristy Thomas was furious she took action.

"Take me there, considering I'm the only one of you whose sober I think I should do the typing" I said.

I'd expected Cokie's fathers study to be a pit in the seventh layer of hell, after all she was the anti Christ. Instead if was a nice bright room with plastic and chrome furniture and post it notes stuck everywhere. The computer was a fancy one with a flat screen and wireless broadband Internet connection; it only took half an hour to type up the draft of the petition. Erica then opened up her email, which had the address book of all the popular students, and she attached the file as a bulk email.

"There now every one whose anyone will have that petition and by Monday afternoon every kid in school will sign it, trust me" she smirked.

Something seemed a little wrong about handing over this mission to the populars, but then again I'd tried to do things my way and Jonathon had shot me down.

By the time we'd finished it was around eleven at night and I was starting to feel tired, I thought briefly about tracking Stacey down but I realized knowing her she wouldn't want to leave for another hour.

Instead I made my way to the second floor and after carefully locating the bathroom window I climbed out onto the roof.

The roof thing as I explained earlier started during freshmen year but I still found myself climbing out onto roof tops when I wanted to be alone even when Mary Anne begged me to stop.

Generally speaking I liked it because even if you are a loud confident person there are still times when you don't want to be found.

People never looked on the roof.

I wasn't sure how long I lay there accept I spent the majority of my time yanking out the hair pins my mother had planted in my hair when she found out I was going out on a real date.

It didn't matter how many times I explained to her that it wasn't a real date at all, it just seemed sad trying to convince her otherwise.

Down below I could hear the sound of two teenagers vomiting in Cokie Mason's garden and I smirked with delight.

I still hated her after all.

"What are you snickering at Golightly?" I heard Cary Retlin drawl.

"You know stalking illegal," I smiled knowingly and I glanced over my shoulder, his head was sticking out the bathroom window.

"Stacey told me you'd be out here, why are you so obsessed with roofs?" he asked and I could barely see his curious expression in the faint light coming from inside.

"Why are you so obsessed with boiler rooms?" I asked.

"Good point" he smirked and I turned my attention back towards the garden while I heard him climb out the window.

"Erica told me about the petition you made, she's already has forty signatures"

"My how ambitious, I should ask her to work for the student court" I said dryly.

"It's always about something with you, isn't it?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" I asked, once again Cary had managed to confuse me with his cryptic bullshit.

"What I mean is that you always have to be the one who gets things done, you don't even realize your doing it half the time do you? The babysitters club and all those other things you did" he remarked and for a fraction of a second I smelt something vaguely like beer and stale choking perfume.

"You're drunk," I said flatly.

"Calm down I've only had one beer and it was the one Pete Black tried to give to Mia I'm not drunk I'm just loose enough to tell you one or two things I've wanted to say for.. God it's been ages hasn't it?" he asked and I rolled my eyes.

"People who need beer to get courage are alcoholics," I pointed out.

"Normally yes, but you'd have to be as brave as Hercules to have an honest conversation with you while sober" he said.

"You know I'm not that scary" I sighed.

"Shut up! I wanted to talk to you about you being a leader right? What I wanted to say was that I know that you being well you it would be hard finding out that your own leader was a thief and a liar" he began and I literally felt the frown on my face soften.

"But the thing is I knew that you, yeah you Kristy Thomas would be the only one in the whole school with enough balls to want to bring him down which is why I told you" he finished and my eyes traveled upwards, I'd known for a really long time that I'd never been able to look at a guy when they were complimenting me.

"Thanks for choosing me as your leader or your spokes person then" I said with only a small amount of sarcasm.

"I didn't choose you, I mean I did choose you but not like that! You've always been a leader," he said, obviously Cary was a happy drunk.

Then something occurred to me, he'd drunk something that was poured by Pete Black and intended for a girl.

Oh god, he was worse then a happy drunk.

He was a happy drunk high on a spiked drink.

"Just stop it ok," I said but not unkindly.

"Stop what?" he asked sounding confused.

"Stop this insane attempt to bond with me, you're going to feel really stupid when you wake up in the morning you know" I said furiously.

"No I wont! I know exactly what I'm saying" he replied and I felt a hand grab onto my shoulder.

"And what are you trying to say Cary?" I asked trying to shrug his hand off and I finally saw the expression on his face.

It was the expression Logan had worn three years ago when he sat next to Mary Ann during his first Baby Sitters Club meeting.

It was the expression Rick Chow had wore when Claudia had sat next to him in the auditorium.

"Oh god, Cary you didn't drink the whole beer did you?" I asked.

"What?" he asked sounding momentarily stunned.

"Because you actually look, well your not sneering or scowling and you never look at me like that," I pointed out wishing I wasn't on top of a rooftop so I could easily escape.

"Why can't I look the way I want to look? Why cant I look at you this way?" he asked sounding faintly angry.

"Because I'm me! I'm ugly bitchy Kristy Thomas and I think your drink was spiked," I said and he seemed to be slowly, incoherently shaking his head.

"You're not ugly, you're spectacular," he said and I groaned. Why was it that the only time a boy every complimented me was when he was evil, taken, and drunk?

"You'll feel differently once you've slept it off" I scowled and I felt his fingers grab for my hand.

"No I wont!" he snapped and his eyes looked very unfocussed in the moonlight.

"Yes you will! This is me Kristy Thomas remembers? You are dating Cokie Mason! You've ignored me since our freshmen year remember? You don't like me it's Pete Black's drugged drink talking!" I said pushing his hand away.

"Is that why you've been acting like such a bitch? Because I've apparently been ignoring you since your freshmen year? I wasn't ignoring you! I grew up and stopped playing stupid jokes on you" he cried.

"It's nice to see you finally admitting the truth then, you grew up and didn't see the point in staying friends with the girl who you used to make fun of" I said with a small bitter laugh.

"Friends?" he asked sounding vaguely astonished.

"Yes friends, despite everything that happened between us I always thought we were at least friends Cary! I mean I had a lot of fun doing those stupid pranks and the mystery war and everything," I admitted.

"Oh" I heard him whisper.

"You should go back inside and sleep this off" I sighed.

"I didn't ignore you because I disliked you, it was just when you came back after the summer you were different" he said in a very small voice.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You were.. I don't know, you got into a fight with Cokie Mason and you climbed around on roofs and you were in detention for three months and you were different and yet still the same" he groaned growing more and more incoherent.

"I was different and yet still the same?" I asked trying to clarify things.

"Yes! And I was scared, that's why I stopped playing jokes on you ok? I was scared and it just didn't seem right anymore" he said his head in his hands.

"Scared of what?" I asked and he looked up before moving towards me.

"This" he admitted.

There are certain moments in your life that have the power to change the universe.

The moment I knew my father had left us was one of them, the moment I came up with the idea for the babysitters club was another.

This one however was the most recent; I was being kissed by a boy high on a spiked drink while sitting on Cokie Mason's rooftop.

I must admit it took me a few seconds to process what was going on; it had after all been a long time since I'd been kissed and the last person who'd tried had been terrible at it.

But Cary wasn't that bad at all, he must have had experience with Cokie Mason.

That was when I stopped, the moment I remembered that she was involved in the situation.

"Cary" I began apologetically as I pushed him off.

"Don't do this because you may be out of it but I'm not" I heard myself saying while my brain was working on autopilot and the cool breeze touched my damp lips.

"CARY?" a voice shrieked from down below.

I glanced downwards and I very nearly threw up, it appeared that the entire party had gathered underneath the roof and they'd been listening and watching the entire conversation.

I saw Stacey staring at me with a sympathetic and yet shocked expression on her face before she disappeared.

And then I saw Cokie her face a drunken make up mask of rage. Cary was yelling something, it sounded like he was apologizing for what he'd done and I felt sick.

"I can explain! Pete Black did something to my drink!" Cary cried standing up and I silently moved towards the window before crawling back into the bathroom. I wasn't exactly sure how long I stood trembling against the window frame but it seemed like seconds later Stacey had burst into the bathroom kicking aside some one who was unconscious next to the toilet.

The look she gave me was one that had belonged to a girl who'd been dumped, stomped on used and abused and had still come out smiling.

"Shut up Stacey, I already know! Lets just go home before Cokie figures out it was me," I groaned.


	5. A Fly on the Wall

Chapter Five

A/N Just a quick chapter, I've started class again at university so I've been super busy. I only had time to write this because blerg I have the worst cold in the history of the universe.

Whoo hoo I have reached fifteen reviews! Not one review, not two but FIFTEEN eat that biatches!

Of course I'm well aware that some stories on this page have reached the over 100 review mark but honestly I don't give a flying.. Er whatever.

To Answer some questions.

Emerald: I actually based Stacey's high school personality on this girl I knew when I was sixteen. She was a total skanky (oops should I say sophisticated?) slut who happened to be very good at Math. She was in the advanced math's class and all the nerdy boys and the shy girls had no idea what to make of her, they were also pissed off because she had this ability to get the highest mark in finals while rarely showing up for class.

Cecilia: Sorry if the chapters are too long, I'm used to the Harry Potter fandom where authors think nothing of churning out a EIGHTY PAGE chapter (no I am not kidding) so they end up with these huge epics that take around eight months to read. The Buffy fandom is almost as bad with authors churning out thirty page long chapters; I cut this chapter I planned in half so it's only six pages.

Heather: OMG WE LIKE HAVE THE SAME NAME OMG! 1111 thanks for liking the conversation.

The problem with having four friends who happened to have very different personalities was that when you spoke to them all at once you tended to feel schizophrenic.

When I told the entire group about the kiss after my baseball game on Sunday I got a mixed reaction.

Abby began laughing hysterically, Mary Anne clapped her hands together and started squawking about how romantic it was, Stacey rolled her eyes and called him a jerk and Claudia asked if he tongued me.

"You know I heard a rumor that he and Cokie were going to break up anyway, you should go ask him to the junior prom" Mary Anne sighed dreamily.

"Ok the junior prom happens to be two months away and I'm not going to throw myself at the first guy who kissed me while on drugs" I pointed out stretching my arms behind my neck.

"Yeah we've got more important things to worry about, like the state championships," Abby said punching me lightly on the arm.

"Abby in order to get to state we'll have to win every game from now on, you do realize that don't you?" I asked with a smirk.

"Hey show a little faith Thomas, if you can turn the whole student body against the school president I think you can bring us to the championships" Abby grinned.

"And while still smelling spring time fresh, you must be wearing that new deodorant" Stacey said running her fingers through her blond hair.

"Remind me again why you came to the game," I said, Stacey only ever came to sporting events when she was dating a member of the team.

"I'm being supportive, besides you left your pearl necklace on my dressing table and I figured I'd better give it back before it gravitated into my mothers jewelry box" Stacey said and my throat ended up making a vague squawking sound.

"I can't believe I forgot them, my mother would have killed me if I'd lost them" I said as Stacey gave me the necklace and I fastened it around my neck for safe keeping.

"Well to be fair you were pretty upset last night" Stacey said closing her purse with a snap.

"Upset? Kristy actually got upset over a guy?" Claudia asked.

"I was upset about a bunch of things, and I wasn't crying I was just angry" I corrected her and then when I saw their curious explanations I decided I should explain what happened with Jonathon.

Mary Anne began to grow red in the face then suggested I should have a "nice chat" with Jonathon in order to discuss our feelings.

Abby suggested that I should kick him in the balls.

Claudia came up with the brilliant idea to draw a cartoon mocking him in the school paper.

Stacey just called him an asshole.

Like I said, it was almost like being schizophrenic.

I didn't know what to do about the mess I was in. I knew what to do about Jonathon and that was simple enough, by Tuesday afternoon almost half the school had signed the petition.

I'd put Mallory who'd shown up at the student court eager to please every one in charge of checking for double or fake signatures.

"So far I haven't found any, they must be taking you really seriously," she said to me cheerfully on Tuesday and then she made a content sigh as Erika wandered into the courtroom clutching onto another stack of forms.

"How are we doing?" I asked.

"We've tackled all of the freshmen and junior year" she smiled.

"Good that means we'll have every one done by Friday" I smiled happily.

The problem was that the petition had to be signed in secret in order to not rouse Jonathon's suspicion. This involved a lot of grabbing people while they made their way to the bathrooms and fast talking them into signing.

It was a slow process but it was one that I knew would work.

Solving the problem with Jonathon seemed easy enough, it was Cary I couldn't handle. I'd never been on the end of a confusing teen angst love triangle before and although I usually confronted people this time I couldn't. Instead I'd perfected my avoiding skills, of course this meant I had to avoid the lower levels of the school but we didn't share any classes together so it was easy enough.

Alan Grey had given me several knowing looks during English class but I ignored him, and I'd also ignored the rumors about Cary and Cokie's very public break up in the Gym.

Then everything came crashing down on Wednesday, at exactly two thirty in the afternoon.

I knew this because I'd been looking at the clock on the wall of the girl's locker room.

"Um Abby" I began.

"Hmm?" she asked, she was in the middle of tying her dripping wet curly hair onto a knot on the back of her neck.

I'd taken a shower because it was a Wednesday and those days usually involved the most grueling class of gym ever, dodge ball.

Our Gym teacher Coach Tudgemen was vaguely sadistic and wouldn't end a game until at least four students had been sent to the nurse's office. Normally I wouldn't have cared about smelling like a pig but born leaders needed to keep up appearances and I didn't want to meet my army after school with sweat stains on my armpits.

In retrospect it turned out to be a really bad idea.

"Where are my clothes?" I hissed.

"In your locker" Abby said dismissively.

"No they're not" I choked.

"Kristy clothes just don't get up and walk away" she pointed out raising her eye brows.

"Yes I know that but I swear to god my clothes are not in my locker! My gym clothes aren't even in my locker and I'm standing here in my underwear with a towel wrapped around my waist on the verge of having a MAJOR FREAK OUT ABBY" I yelled and I realized I was screaming when she slapped me.

"Sorry but you needed that Kristy, you were starting to freak out" she said firmly.

"Of course I was freaking out! This is the most naked I've been in public since my mother gave birth to me" I cried.

"Just duck into one of the shower stalls and I'll try to find your clothes, everything will be fine! You just need to chill," she said raising her hands.

Some how this seemed worse then the time Cary had stolen my math homework or Alan Grey had put a wet noodle down my shirt. I was half naked, dripping wet and above everything else alone.

I ducked into the shower stall while I listened to Abby search the locker room.

"Huh weird" she muttered.

"Has some one written the word dyke all over my clothes again?" I asked, it had happened once during my sophomore year after all.

"No all the gym uniforms are gone including mine, and the towels, and every one else" Abby said her voice muffled.

"All the clothes are gone? Do you know what this means?" I cried.

"That some one had a hankering to do a huge load of laundry?" Abby asked.

"No that this was planned! Try and find Claudia ok? I know for a fact that she always keeps at least one spare outfit in her locker to change into so she doesn't end up with paint all over her clothes" I begged her.

"You're actually willing to wear one of Claudia's outfits?" Abby gasped looking horrified.

"It's better then walking around the school in this lovely black sports bra" I sneered.

Once Abby had gone I was left alone, sitting in a stall, in my underwear while I read graffiti which had been posted all over the walls.

The PA System crackled and said something along the lines of "Ill Ry Lin ome Fice"; I assumed it had something to do with the lunch menu.

After a few moments I began to make mental spelling corrections, it was obvious which ones Claudia had written.

Once that was over and done with I hugged the towel closer listening to the dripping sound of the shower, where the hell was Abby?

Claudia only ever went to two classrooms so it shouldn't have taken so long to find her.

After twenty minutes I was freezing and I was beginning to get worried, it was then that I heard footsteps pounding into the locker room.

"Kristy?" I heard Claudia call.

"I'm in here Claud," I said and she ran into my stall handing me a pile of clothes.

"Sorry it's all I had in my locker, I know the pants don't match the top and it'll look totally stale but at least it's better then being naked" she said.

"Claudia, these pants are covered with beanie babies" I pointed out.

"I sewed them on myself! Be careful of the one shaped like an owl because it's worth three hundred dollars" she said as I wrestled myself into the plush bear covered trousers.

"Hurry up Kristy we have to move now" she said handing me the shirt, which was an ugly, beige colored one covered in paint that I suspected once belonged to her dad.

"Move why? I've already missed nearly all of Math," I pointed out.

"Cary's been suspended" she said casually as I buttoned up the shirt.

"WHAT?" I screamed.

"The principal called him to his office and Rambling Rose eavesdropped on the whole thing, Cokie Mason and Jonathon Mathews gave the principal a copy of the petition you handed around! Accept the words were like changed on it to make it seem like you guys wanted to kill Jonathon, I think they changed the word from expel to exterminate" she said.

"Oh my god" I cried frantically doing up the rest of the shirt.

"I know! Every one thinks that Cokie was trying to get revenge for the making out thing" Claudia grinned wickedly.

"I have to find him," I said running across the room as fast as I could in a pair of pants covered with hundreds of fluro colored animals.

"Why?" Claudia asked.

"To find out if he told on me," I snapped.

I'd love to see an athlete try to sprint across the school with no shoes on, covered in stuffed animals and wearing a shirt four sizes too big.

By the time I'd reached the parking lot it was just in time to see a car pull out and onto the curb, if I squinted I could make out Cary's blond hair in the back seat.

"He didn't say anything about you" a voice sneered and I turned around, Cokie Mason was staring at me a faintly amused smirk on her lips.

"Cute pants, they're a Claudia Kishi original aren't they?" she asked and then she reached into the bright pink shoulder bag she had slung over one shoulder and pulled out a olive tank top and a pair of denim shorts.

My olive tank top and my pair of denim shorts.

"You bitch" I sneered and she smirked again.

:"Well I had to get you out of the way some how didn't I? Poor Cary didn't stand a chance in front of the Principal with out you around to back up everything he was saying" she smirked.

"I can't believe even you would stoop so low to work for Mathews! He stole money from your dance fund," I pointed out and she rolled her eyes.

"I prefer a thief over a cheating boyfriend Thomas, and besides Jonathon gave me back every cent the dance committee raised" she smirked and I knew perfectly well that he wasn't going to do the same thing for all the other clubs.

"I'm a little disappointed though, I was so sure he'd take you down with him but I guess he must have a spark of something good in him, he refused to tell the Principal who else was involved in the petition and now he's been suspended" she said shrugging her shoulders.

"Pathetic really" she added and I did the only thing I could do, I punched her face in.

"So you hit Cokie Mason again?" Nannie asked during our weekly yoga class.

"Yes, but the teachers weren't around thank god, otherwise I would have ended up with a detention," I whispered back.

The first time I'd gotten into a fight with Cokie Mason Mom and my stepfather Watson were too busy being workaholics to do anything other then give me a ten minute lecture. It was Nannie who stepped up to the plate and started forcing me to go her weekly yoga classes, she'd already been going to them for six weeks and there was nothing more disturbing then seeing an elderly woman do the lotus position. She said I needed to go in order to learn how to control my anger.

I knew perfectly well that Yoga was something Dawn did and I was worried I'd end up becoming a sunflower seed eating carnivore-hating psychopath. But after the first two sessions I realized that it was mainly little old ladies like Nannie, or house wives who took the classes and they were all refreshingly normal.

"Hasn't the path taught you anything Kristy? Karma will eventually punish her and violence is never the answer" our instructor Miss Sarah Moon (a.k.a Miss Laura Sanchez, Mallory told me that three years ago she'd been a Stoneybrook day camp counselor) said.

"Yeah well karma isn't going to do jack all when Cokie is running around framing people for crimes they didn't commit" I snapped.

Miss Sara moon (a.k.a Miss Laura Sanchez) sighed and clapped her hands together.

"I think we all need to get into the feeling circle," she said and I rolled my eyes.

"Not the feeling circle! Can't we just keep stretching? I have another game coming up next weekend and I want to be limber" I said.

"Kristy you won't be able to do anything athletic as long as your soul is troubled, your fears will merely manifest themselves and cause havoc across your body" Miss Sarah Moon said knowingly.

The feeling circle was something Miss Moon organized once in a while when she sensed that one of her clients was feeling "troubled" and it usually consisted of Ms Besser complaining about her messy divorce.

"So group we're here to help Kristy through her life problems" Miss Moon began, it was so embarrassing.

For one thing half the woman in the feeling circle were former Babysitters club clients including Mrs. Barret and Mrs. Arnold.

I stared at all their faces feeling shame swirl around in my stomach, and Miss Moon gave me an encouraging look.

"So Kristy, why are you angry?" Miss Moon asked.

"I'm angry because Cokie Mason stole my clothes and framed Cary Retlin for a crime he didn't commit" I said.

"And why would she do that?" Miss Moon asked eagerly.

"Because she wanted revenge," I muttered.

"Why?" Miss Moon asked.

"Will you stop asking me questions?" I asked.

"Unless we know the root of the problem we can't heal your soul" she persisted, and I sighed reluctantly telling the feeling circle the whole story, leaving some facts vague of course.

The assembled adults were staring at me with a mixture of shock and sympathy, I bet that none of them could believe that I Kristy Thomas former babysitter's club president was capable of doing all the things I'd done in the past two weeks, I guess I had a lot to be ashamed of.

"Well I don't think you did anything wrong Kristy, it seems to me you were thrown into a situation that got out of hand" Ms Besser said.

"I think we should call the school and have a little talk to them about this Mathews boy" Nannie said grimly.

"No you can't do that!" I protested.

"Kristy's right, she's proven in the past that she's a very capable girl who can handle herself," Mrs. Barret pointed out while brushing her fingers through her brown curly hair.

"Capable yes but no mans an Island, this Mathew's boy sounds slippery, if she's going to prove his a criminal she's going to need help" Mrs. Arnold said.

"But I don't know who to ask, Jonathon already turned Cary in and what if he does the same thing to my friends?" I asked.

"If he keeps doing what he's doing he'll never learn his lesson, if one of our children was misbehaving you wouldn't have let them get away with it" Mrs. Arnold pointed out and I frowned.

"I just don't know what I can do," I said.

"Well if it was a kid how would you deal with it?" Ms Besser asked and I frowned.

How would I deal with it?

My mind turned to all my past babysitters club experiences, holding a giant sleep over didn't seem appropriate and neither did taking a trip to Sea City.

"Well I guess if a kid was doing something bad and trying to avoid punishment I would make sure he did it in front of his parents so he'd get caught?" I suggested and the members of the feeling circle slowly nodded.

I knew what I had to do, I had to make sure that Jonathon stole again and I had to make sure that this time he got caught.


	6. Where does it all come from?

Chapter six: Where does it all come from?

A/N Well another chapter, this one actually went in several directions at first and I felt like I was pulling teeth until I decided to just shut up and write it my way.

You know how it is.

ANNE M MARTIN OWNS THE BSC, I OWN MORGAN RAVENLEE.

"I call this emergency meeting of the babysitters club alumni to order," I said hitting my squeaky gavel against the steering wheel of Watson's van. For the first time in nearly eighteen months every single member of the Babysitters club alumni had managed to be in the same place at the same time, this was because we were all heading to Claudia's art show together.

"Kristy should you be driving while holding a meeting?" Mary Anne asked gently.

"I can do two things at once! It's called multitasking," I snapped and I squealed with shock as Watson's insanely old cat Boo ran in front of the Van.

"Maybe you should let some one who has a license drive, as apposed to just a learners permit" Abby said and I sighed with defeat.

"Fine" I admitted undoing my seat belt.

We were driving to the art show in my stepfather Watson's mini van, he'd bought it after our fortieth trip to Shadow Lake deciding it would be a good investment. A month later a freak hurricane destroyed his cabin and he never got around to building a new one.

The good thing however was that we still had the van, it was perfect for whenever our entire group decided to get together.

Unfortunately due to conflicting schedules and Jessie's sudden desire to spend all her time with her "homies" this didn't happen that often.

"Ok I call this meeting to order," I said once I'd switched seats with Abby.

"Remind us again why we're having this meeting?" my neighbor Shannon asked flicking her blond hair over one shoulder. When we were thirteen Shannon had a somewhat interesting face and a ski jump nose, thankfully however by the time we were fifteen her father's wallet and a decent plastic surgeon took care of that landmark.

While we drove to the art gallery I told the BSC the entire story, I knew I could trust them. After all these were the girls we'd shared our life long secrets with and they were the only ones who knew I got my first period during the middle of Stacey's middle school graduation party.

"Cokie is so evil" Stacey said from where she was sitting next to Jessie in the third row.

"Damn it that hoe got shot up thehole by her man, dah mudda fucka deserves all da retribution she can whoop out on his ass" Jessie said, she followed this by giving us a very dramatic hand signal.

It was amazing what kind of language she'd picked up ever since she spent a whole summer with her cousin Keisha.

"Oh please every one knows that Cokie was whoring around for ages, she made out with Logan Bruno only two weeks ago! It's hypocritical for her to get upset over one kiss that happened while he was on drugs" Stacey said with the air of an expert.

"Still I feel bad for her! I mean it's always embarrassing when a boyfriend cheats on you" Mary Anne the kind hearted sniffed.

" People we're not here to bitch about Cokie!" I snapped.

"We're not?" Abby asked her eyes on the road.

"We're here to talk about what we're going to do, Cary may be a drug taking lying sneak but he shouldn't be punished when Jonathon's the real criminal" I said and the car was filled with a thoughtful silence.

During my career in high school politics I heard about social cliques who at this point would have given up, who would have accepted Jonathon had won and would have counted their losses.

But the former members of the babysitters club knew me better then anyone, which meant that they knew I would never give up so easily.

"How are we going to catch him?" Stacey asked in a bored tone of voice.

"How do you catch a kid when he's being bad?" I asked.

"Distract him with play dough" said Claudia.

"Whoop his punk ass" said Jessie.

"Write an insulting story about a frog and name it after him" said Mallory.

"Bribe him" said Stacey and Mary Anne lightly touched my shoulder with her hand before sharing a secret smile with me.

"Hand in the cookie jar" she said and I nodded.

"Kristy wants us to lay a trap" Mary Anne explained.

"A trap? Oh my lord that's so Nancy Drew!" Claudia cried.

"Way Dibble" Mallory grinned.

"Mallory nobody says Dibble anymore, honestly that word is so nineteen eighty-six" Stacey snorted.

"What kind of trap are we talking here? A giant net dropping down from the ceiling?" Abby laughed.

"No! he had to give Cokie back the money he stole from the dance fund which means he's lost some of his profits, he might try to steal them again and this time we'll have to catch him" I said confidently.

"And how exactly will we do that? We're not psychic's" Mallory pointed out.

"I don't know, I'll think of something" I said my mind still thinking, Claudia gave a small cough.

"Um should we ask Cary for help?" she asked.

"No! I mean he's already gotten in huge trouble, no one can tell him ok?" I asked.

"Are you sure? He can break into lockers, the boys a walking felony" Abby cracked and I shook my head.

"I don't want him to get expelled" I admitted.

"Hey guys we're almost here! Time to put on the costumes!" Claudia literally squealed with excitement.

When Claudia told us the original members of the Babysitters club were going to be a part of her new exhibit I was reluctant. I still hadn't forgotten the time she'd tried to cover us in chocolate.

But after she'd explained her concept I reluctantly agreed to help her. Turns out they were going for a post structuralism theme, and post structuralism was apparently all about taking phrases or words and turning them into a new concept. Sort of like those weird t-shirts you got in underground CD stores that had lines from comic books printed across the front. Harriet Maddison ( who started referring to herself as Morgan Ravenlee when she turned Goth) basically wrote an angsty teenage lust filled poem and it was Claudia's job to illustrate it by using art. She decided to turn us into her living canvas, each of us was wearing a hand made costume that represented a line of the poem with the stanza written across the front. If we all stood in line you could actually read the poem from start to finish. At the end of the first night Claudia was then going to put the costumes back onto these statues she'd created, which were supposed to look like us.

At first Morgan and Claudia had several clashes, Morgan's poem was a piece of angsty Linkin Park inspire crap complete with Tim Burton style gothic fairy tale references. Meanwhile Claudia's art tended to follow the bright bubbliness of Henri Matisse on crack.

Then fortunately for Claudia, Morgan ended up having to go to a clinic in Stamford for a nice long rest after she'd tried to kill herself by choking on a Frisbee.

Claudia had taken the poem and turned it from a weird piece of Goth torture into something that seemed like one of those dreams you tended to have at around four in the morning.

Mallory for example was dressed in red satin dress with a fitted bodice that ended in torn up shreds, her arms were covered with red and gold crisscrossed ribbons and Claudia had brushed out her normally very frizzy red hair so now it resembled an afro. Claudia explained that Mallory had been given the costume because she was the one who filled out the bodice. Mallory had proven that stocky eleven year olds really did grow giant boobs as soon as they turned fifteen. The word explosive has been written across her expansive cleavage in red lipstick.

I'd explained to Claudia that I flat out refused to wear anything too weird so she'd promptly put me in a black witches hat with a black t-shirt and red silk pajama pants. The words " Razor Blade Kisses" had been printed across the shirt in white cursive and she'd painted my lips blood red with another streak running across my left cheek.

Mary Anne was covered in white body paint and she was wearing a wedding dress with "Grazed snow white" painted on it in pink puffy paint.

Jessie was literally covered in mounds of gold "bling" and a fake road sign attached to her stomach read "gold turned black".

Abby had on a Greek toga thing over her regular jeans and her hair had a laurel wreath perched amongst the bushy curls, her own placard in the shape of a stone tablet read "Deep within the dark wood".

Stacey had flat out refused to wear her costume which was in fact made out of ginger bread, instead she'd shoved it onto an old rag doll. Personally I think she would have looked less stupid if she wore it. Her placard read "As the Oven Door Shut" in white frosting.

Claudia completely misinterpreting the English language had dressed up as the end of the poem or the line " fin" she looked like a cross between a toxic waste hazard and a mermaid.

In theory if we were all standing side by the side the piece of "art" should have read.

b In the deep dark wood explosive razor blade kisses grazed Snow White. Gold turned Black as the oven door shut-Fin. /b 

I naturally thought that the poem was fucking stupid.

"Oh my god you guys look so awesome" Claudia cried waddling over in her mermaid fin.

"They look like extra's from a Marilyn Manson film clip" Shannon said.

"Hey Claudia can I keep the corset after the exhibit closes? It'll help motivate Ben to ask me out on a non library date" grinned Mallory.

Once I'd entered the gallery the first thing I did was promptly remove the witch's hat before heading off to the bathroom to wash off the crazy make up. I never made it however, some one grabbed me by the back of the shirt and dragged me into the boiler room.

"Get your hands off me you creep" I screeched stomping on my kidnappers toes before twisting out of his grip and kneeing him in the balls.

"You bitch" Alan Grey cried falling onto the dirty cement floor.

"Alan what the hell are you doing?" I yelled.

"I asked him to retrieve you, interesting shirt by the way.. Razor Blade Kisses?" some one else said and I glanced up.

Cary Retlin was sitting in the shadows in an old red velvet covered chair a bemused expression on his face.

Cokie Mason was standing next to him dressed in a red pleather mini skirt and a matching red blouse, she looked skanky and intimidating. The only thing ruining it was of course the bandage across her broken nose.

"What's going on?" I began uneasily and Cary smiled.

"I think it's time we let you in on everything" he grinned.

Once Bart Taylor and I had gone to see the movie Ocean's eleven, this was around a month before I figured out he was gay. Back then he'd sporadically ask me out every now and then just to hide what he really was, it was kind of weird how he chose me though considering I'm practically a boy without a dick. Anyway I usually went out with him, he was cute and he always paid for the tickets so it didn't really matter that he never really tried to cop a feel.

Anyway I remember actually sitting through the movie watching intently as Daniel Ocean orchestrated the huge elaborate plan to rob the casino.

It was without a doubt the dumbest thing I'd ever seen, if I robbed a Casino I would have just marched in their with my own army and a bunch of guns.

But after I watched it for the third time in the Den on DVD I realized that the criminals in Ocean's eleven didn't rob the casino for the money. They wanted to do something completely insane, elaborate and over the top just to see if they could get away with it.

The expression on Daniel Ocean's face when he explained the plan was the exact same one Cary was wearing.

"I thought you two broke up" I said my gaze flickering towards Cokie.

"We were never actually going out, do you think I'd really waste my time seriously dating an emo self-righteous mini protestor when I can have any rich boy in Stoneybrook" Cokie said examining her nails.

"Oh that hurts" Cary said rolling his eyes and clutching his hand to his chest.

"Well we weren't, a real boyfriend would have showered me with gifts instead of using me as a glorified sex toy" Cokie said in her familiar shrieking voice.

"Oh god I so didn't need to hear that" I said to Alan.

"Well a real girlfriend would have actually wanted to go out in public as apposed to driving around in her fathers car" Cary shot back smoothly.

"Okay I'm going to leave right now" I said to Alan but he stood in front of the door.

"You're not going anywhere Thomas" Cary said without even looking at me.

"Oh so she's involved as well? I might have known" Cokie growled.

"Actually I brought you both here to discuss the Mathews situation" Cary said shooting Cokie a hard look.

"Brought me here? You got your little stooge to lie and say Logan was waiting for me in here" Cokie snarled.

"Hey why didn't you just lie to me? Why did you grab my shirt?" I asked Alan.

"If I told you to follow me into a boiler room would you have said yes?" Alan asked.

"No" I admitted.

"Well if Logan isn't in here I'm leaving" Cokie snarled and Cary grabbed onto her wrist.

"You know I think I should be the one whose upset Cokie, after all you turned me over to the vice principal and framed me for a crime I didn't commit" he said in the same nonchalant voice.

I noticed that Cokie's other hand was twitching slightly.

"You deserved it" she said in a horse voice.

"Pot.Kettle.Black" Cary snapped back.

"Yeah he never accused you of shop lifting every time you went off with Logan Bruno, or Pete Black, or Trevor Whitehouse" Alan said defensively.

"Just because he's above revenge it doesn't mean I'm not" Cokie said her eyes falling on me and I couldn't look at her.

"Only one problem Cokie you forgot that you're dealing with me" Cary said with a small angry smile.

To me it looked like a grimace.

"I've never forgotten who I was dealing with but you can't touch me Cary, you've been suspended" Cokie said sounding almost brave for a second.

"Thomas?" He asked and my eyes darted upwards.

"Cary I'm not getting involved" I said.

"Even if it involves illegal student activity? Stuff the student court may be interested in?" he asked his eyes flickering towards Cokie and she paled.

"You wouldn't!" she hissed.

"You betrayed me and pay backs a bitch" he replied.

"You have no evidence" she hissed.

"Actually a I do, see I have an LG cell phone, the latest model which happens to have a video camera. It's very good for recording amateur footage in the girls locker room or evidence of young women who cheated on the schools honor system exam" he said and Cokie made a vague choking sound.

"Your daddy will be so disappointed Cokie, especially after he bought you that shiny knew car" Alan snickered.

"I knew you couldn't have beaten me on that exam" I said adding to the general mud slinging.

Cokie's eyes darted towards all of us and then fell on me, she knew the punishment for cheating on the honors exam was suspension with the possibility of expulsion if there had been previous discrepancies.

I could tell she was thinking about our fight freshmen year and the warnings the school counselor had given both of us.

"Kristy" she began.

"Cheating on an exam is a huge offence Cokie, of course if the student court was to proceed with judicial action they would need evidence, Cary would have to testify" I said and her eyes darted towards him.

"And I could accidentally delete the video footage if you were willing to do one or two minor things" Cary said and Cokie sighed as if defeated.

"What do you want?" she growled.

"First apologize to Kristy for stealing her clothes, no one deserves beanie baby pants" Cary said.

"Why should I apologize for that? She's still wearing Claudia's weirdo clothes now!" Cokie cried.

"Hello! It's called art, god even I knew that" Alan said with a small smirk.

"That's not art that's a Halloween costume" Cokie snorted.

"It's actually a piece of performance art which uses post structuralism to express the emotional intensity teenage girls feel towards relationships" I said repeating everything Claudia had told me when she made the costume.

Cokie blinked looking faintly stunned and I marched towards her.

"I wore that olive green tank top the first time I won the under fourteen cross country meet, it's my lucky shirt which means you better damn well apologize" I said and she stared down at me with her bruised nose.

"Fine, I'm sorry" she said with extreme reluctance.

"Good, isn't it nice when we're civil to each other?" I grinned and she grimaced.

"Is that it?" she asked glancing towards Cary and his gaze for the first time rested on me properly.

"I assume that your brain is already thinking up a new way to catch Mathews?" he asked and I nodded.

"Good then, until I say you can stop it's now your job to keep Jonathon Mathew's distracted at all times, he's not allowed to approach either Kristy or her friends and if he discovers anything I'll be forced to hand my evidence over" Cary said tapping his fingers against his chin.

"How am I supposed to keep him distracted?" Cokie Squawked.

"Think Cokie, think really hard" Alan grinned and she blushed bright red.

"I'm not going to go out with him just to please you, that would make me a whore" she pointed out.

"No accepting money would make you a whore, this would just make you a slut" Cary said.

"How can you be so sure I can distract him? The boy lives for student politics and I'm not even sure getting laid can change that" she finally said.

"I'm sure you'll be able to do it, or we could just ask Stacey" I pointed out and Cokie narrowed her eyes.

"No need to bring in the village bicycle" she said coolly.

"Say that again and I'll match your nose with a black eye" I shot back and we glared at each other, some things never changed.

"Kristy as much as I approve of you hitting Cokie her face needs to be perfect otherwise Mathews will ignore her" Cary said and Cokie shot him a venomous look.

"What did I ever see in you?" she growled.

"Well my physical appearance I suppose and my car, mostly my car" Cary replied and Cokie looked around the room one last time.

"Can I go now?" she hissed.

"Sure, sorry for keeping you so long Cokie and remember stab me in the back again and I'll stab you in the front" Cary said cheerfully.

Cokie practically growled at me as Alan let her out and I stared at Cary a vaguely confused expression on my face.

"Do you think it's wise to keep her on our side?" I asked raising my eyebrow.

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" he said lazily his eyes half shut.

"Is that why you keep me around?" I asked and for a second his usual smug confident expression was uncertain.

"No I mean I was referring to her" he began.

"Let me out Alan, I'm a walking exhibit after all and Claudia will be pissed if I disappear all night" I said.

Some time later Cary found me while I was standing next to Abby so the poem read " In the deep dark wood razor blade kisses", yes it wasn't grammatically correct.

"Do you even know what Post Structuralism is?" was the first thing he said to me, he looked pretty upset.

"No but Cokie doesn't know either" I pointed out.

"I know what Post structuralism is" Abby said with the confidence of some one who was about to say something profound.

"No you don't stop showing off" I said with annoyance.

"Yes I do, Post structuralism is the idea that all language in the past will influence language in the future so there can be no such thing as an original idea" Abby said smugly.

"How on earth did you know that?" I asked and Cary rolled her eyes.

"Because Miss Portland told her, we're in the same English class" he said and Abby gave a small smug nod.

"Ok so I didn't know what Post structuralism was! But some one had to shut her up and at least this time I didn't hit her" I sighed folding my arms.

"Well next time you decide to shut her up just call her a slag, it always works" Abby said.

"Will you shut up?" I asked and she rolled her eyes.

"Sorry I didn't mean to make you look like an idiot in front of Cary" she said wiggling her eyebrows.

"I can't believe you're not shutting up" I hissed and Abby started to cough theatrically.

"Oh dear I do believe I'm coming down with an allergy attack, I best go and get a glass of water before my asthma kills me" she smirked.

"Your asthma can kill you?" Cary asked looking vaguely freaked out.

"Oh I'll be fine once I've had some medication, I'll leave you alone Kristy, with Cary" she said meaningfully and I groaned staring at the floor.

"I thought you were suspended" I finally said.

"From school, not life" he pointed out.

"I'm sorry about Cokie" I replied and he shrugged his shoulders.

"I was going to dump her sooner or later, she was only going out with me because she wanted all my cool alternative friends to vote for her as prom queen" he said after he sighed.

"That's terrible" I said sympathetically.

"Yeah they wouldn't have voted for her anyway, they believe that all forms of monarchy happen to be evil" he said.

"Then why did you go out with her?" I asked.

"Boredom mostly, Alan warned me about all the evil things she did but considering she did them all to the Baby Sitters Club I didn't take it that seriously" he finally said.

"Thanks a lot" I shot back.

"Well to be fair nearly every one at some point did something evil to the babysitters club" he reasoned.

"True" I reluctantly agreed.

"So what exactly is your costume supposed to represent?" he asked and I touched the witch's hat.

"Personally I think I'm supposed to symbolize those bitchy girls in high school who destroy lives, aka Cokie" I said.

"Deep" he said.

"The art critics seem to think so, they're all calling Claudia a genius for blending the worlds of fashion and art. The art students from Stamford community college are going nuts, one of them actually asked me out for coffee" I said with a small smile.

"You shouldn't go out with college guys" he said quickly.

"I said no" I reassured him.

"Good, I mean good that you said no, not that some sleazy college drug addict asked you out. Of course coffee isn't that bad, it can be good when you're drinking it with some one whose not.. on drugs" he said and my eyes swiveled towards him. Cary Retlin, the smoothest guy in the school who could spin words into gold was sweating.

And blushing.

I stared at the floor.

He stared at the floor.

Luckily for us it was covered in a tile mosaic so it was at least interesting.

"Besides he smelt like my brother Charlie's dope and I don't go out with guys who are high on drugs when they hit on me" I finally said.

"You don't?" he asked sounding embarrassed.

"No" I said quickly.

"So this plan involving Mathews, do you know what it is yet?" he asked.

"Of course I do, Jonathon has given Cokie back her clubs money which means his short which means he'll steal again, all we have to do is lay a trap and catch him" I said giving Mallory a brief nod who was waving at me from across the gallery.

"And how exactly will you catch him?" he asked and I sighed.

It wasn't as if I didn't want Cary's help, it was just he'd been suspended once and I didn't want that to happen again.

In the end despite his well confidence and intelligence he wasn't a member of the Baby sitters club. We'd dealt with being ship wrecked on Island's, we'd thwarted diamond thieves, middle school vandals and psychopaths who obsessed over their school dance twenty years ago.

Cary just didn't have our experience, or our resources.

"I'll let you know when I've thought of something" I said and my eyes flickered towards the entrance where I saw Emily Bernstein talking to Claudia.

She was wearing a t-shirt promoting the rock concert for the tsunami crisis, so far no one had bought tickets to the complete lack of interesting bands.

An idea flickered in my mind, a great idea, a Kristy Thomas idea.

"You could tell me now, I know you Thomas and I can tell by that expression you've already got an idea" I heard him say and I shook my head.

"I don't have to tell everything to the boy who still calls me by my last name" I pointed out coyly.

"I only call my friends by their first names, actually" he replied and I realized Claudia was signaling me.

It was time to change out of the costumes and unveil the statues.

It was also time to have a little chat with Emily.


	7. Take your mother

Chapter seven:

When it came to high school there were two types of sluts.

The first type were the high-class sluts like Stacey, Stacey has in fact only ever slept with three guys even though she's dated a lot.

The main reason why Stacey got called a slut was because unfortunately for her she was born with a perfect diabetes induced figure, her father bought her a designer wardrobe and once she stopped perming it she had fantastic hair.

Then there were the classic sluts; these were girls who would shamelessly use their sexuality to get whatever the hell they wanted.

Cokie had been working towards that goal ever since she tried to steal Logan off Mary Anne when we were thirteen.

By the time we were sixteen she was perfect at it, and on Friday the first thing I saw was her standing outside Jonathon Mathew's locker practically plastering herself against him. To give Jonathon a little credit he did seem horrified by this. He was backing away from her slowly holding up his hands as if they were a defensive shield, I snickered at them both heading to my English class.

"You seem cheerful Finally caught the criminals then?" Emily asked as I sat in the seat next to her. Emily and I had been stuck together in English ever since we both realized we were the only girls in our class who ever did the assigned reading.

"Oh I've caught plenty of criminals Emily, how's the tsunami crisis concert going?" I asked and she rolled her eyes.

"Don't ask, our budget has been slashed again and at this rate we can barely afford to hire the stage! Plus nobodies buying any tickets and I'm worried we'll barely raise enough to cover costs" she groaned.

"You know I could help you" I began.

"No" she said flatly.

"Emily your in way over your head" I sighed and she glared at me.

"I am perfectly capable of organizing a fundraiser myself" she sniffed and then she opened her copy of Drum Media magazine.

"Hang on that girl on the cover" I said staring at the picture of a miserable skinny Goth girl.

"That girl happens to be Maggie Bloom, lead singer of the band Vanish? There song broken wings debuted no: 1 on the charts" Emily said adjusting her glasses.

"I know her" I said my eyes widening with realization.

"You know Maggie Bloom? Get real Thomas you're Susie High School and she's an underground emo rock figure," Emily said looking faintly amused.

"I'm serious! Remember Dawn Schafer?" I asked.

"That weird hippy who's breathe smelt like granola?" Emily asked her brow wrinkling with concentration.

"Maggie Bloom happened to be one of her best friends in California! They had their own branch of the babysitters club," I said and Emily rolled her eyes.

"Maggie Bloom happens to be the queen of teen angst and haikus, she doesn't baby-sit" Emily said.

"She did when she was thirteen! What does the article say?" I asked and Emily looked up anxiously, Mr Fischer our English teacher still hadn't shown up yet.

He was always at least ten minutes late because he was addicted to two things, coffee and cigarettes.

"Vanish is performing some sort of concert in New York tomorrow night" Emily sighed.

"This is it!" I breathed.

"Huh?"

"We can go to the concert and convince Maggie Bloom to perform at your charity thing, people will want to go if a famous person shows up!" I grinned.

"Kristy how can you be so sure Maggie Bloom will say yes?" Sighed Emily.

"She has to say yes, she was a member of a babysitters club branch even if it was in California and we pledge eternal loyalty to each other" I said and Emily blinked.

"Or we could just tell her that the charity concert is for starving animals and children, if I remember correctly she's a sucker for that sort of thing" I said.

"There's one small factor your forgetting Kristy I'm in charge of the tsunami crisis and I'm not going to kick out the bands I've already lined up so you can run off to New York tomorrow night under the delusion that a rock star happens to be one of your former employees" Emily said and I took a deep calming breath slowly countering to ten.

"If I can convince Maggie Bloom to perform at the charity concert will you put her on the bill?" I asked and Emily smirked.

"If you can convince Maggie Bloom to perform I'll let you sing" she said.

"Deal" I said extending my hand and she gravely shook it.

"There are no words to describe how crazy you are Kristy," she said, sounding almost proud.

"So that's the whole situation," I said to the babysitter's club alumni as we sat in the student courtroom after school.

"Ok let me get this straight" Stacey began and she marched to the white board I had set up.

"You think that if enough people buy tickets to the tsunami crisis concert Jonathon will be tempted to steal the profits, so you want us to go to this concert in New York and convince Maggie Bloom a rock star to perform at. Our concert in order to increase ticket sales" she said pointing at each part of the plan.

"Yes" I said cheerfully.

"Kristy you've lost it! Our parents will never let us go to New York" Mary Anne pointed out.

"Actually my mother would, she never notices where I go" Abby said raising her hand.

"My mother wouldn't either, she has enough trouble keeping track of all eight of us" Mallory pointed out.

"Yes but my father would, he locks me in my room to make sure I do all my math homework" Mary Anne sighed.

"Fortunately I thought of that, during study hall I went online and looked up train time tables, the concert starts at eighty thirty, if we leave by five on the train we'll get there in time and then we can catch the train home! All of us except Mary Anne have a One am curfew so we could talk to Maggie during the intermission and then head home without our parents knowing" I grinned.

"Actually I like this plan, sounds more fun then going to another social event created by Cokie Mason" Stacey said warming to the event.

"We'd need ID though, it isn't an all ages venue" Claudia said consulting the magazine I'd borrowed off Emily.

I had to admit that it was a slight snag, there were one person who knew how to make a fake ID but I really didn't want to consult him.

"I'll deal with it" Stacey said and then her eyes fell on me.

"Of course I'll need your help" she said her eyes lingering on me.

When it came to attaining a fake ID there was one person in Stoneybrook high school that had the talent and the patience to pull it off, and I bet you're thinking it was Cary Retlin.

You'd be wrong; in fact it was surprisingly enough Alan Grey.

On the surface Cary was the sort of guy who every one believed had at least at dozen fake ID's. In reality he was more likely to spend his time reading in his room rather then going into a club. Alan on the other hand had been obsessed with entering forbidden rooms ever since he'd tried to go into the girl's bathroom back in the first grade. By the time we were fourteen he decided to move on from bathrooms and into adult bookstores and strip clubs. Alan ended up surprising everyone by signing up for a summer digital photography class and by the ninth grade he knew exactly how to use Photoshop to create a fake ID.

Of course he was expensive.

"Why do I have to come?" I groaned as we marched down the main drag of Stoneybrook.

"Because Alan's been in love with you since the third grade, he'll cut us a decent deal if you come along" Stacey pointed out practically dragging me by my hand.

"He hasn't been in love with me since the third grade, he's been obsessed with me since the third grade and there is a difference" I said miserably.

"We're here," Stacey said as we approached the first ever Starbucks to open in Stoneybrook.

"I can't do this" I gulped.

"Do you want the fake ID or not?" Stacey snapped.

"Yes, no, maybe"

"Talking to Alan wont kill you"

"No but I might end up killing him" I groaned.

"Sooner or later Kristy your going to have to learn how to relate to guys without giving into homicidal tendacies" she sighed.

Alan worked in Starbucks; after all buying the latest computer software to keep his ID business running was expensive.

There was also the fact he was allowed to drink free coffee, Alan had been addicted to caffeine since the sixth grade.

"Well if it isn't the stunningly gorgeous Stacey McGill and the fantastically frightening Kristy Thomas, you two here for a caffeine hit?" he asked as we approached the counter.

"Shouldn't you have some sort of pre packaged greeting for us Alan? Like welcome to Starbucks can we take your order?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

"Of course I do! But I pride on greeting my friends individually, so what can I get you two?" he asked picking up his magic marker.

"We both want strawberry and guava fruit chillers" Stacey said examining her manicure.

"Stacey you cant drinks that! Those things are pure sugar, one sip will send you into a diabetic coma" I pointed out but then I realized Alan wasn't writing down the order.

"It's a code word Kristy" he smiled and then there was a blinding flash.

"What the hell?" I squeaked and I realized he was holding a camera phone.

"I needed to get your picture" he smirked.

"Why do we need to speak in code?" I whispered.

"Because I'm supposed to be working! I'll get fired if the boss thinks I'm not selling you real Strawberry guava fruit chillers" Alan said turning to one of the machines.  
"Actually we need ones for all the former BSC members," Stacey said and his eyes lit up with interest.

"All seven of you? That's going to cost a lot," he said handing me a deep sunset pink colored drink.

"We're going to a concert at club Debaser if you must know, so how much is it going to cost us?" I asked.

"Club Debaser huh? Tell you what I'll do it for free," he said as I handed over a five-dollar bill.

"Alan you never do anything for free" I pointed out.

"I'll do this if you let me come along," he said counting out my change and I felt my cheek twitch.

"He usually charges fifty dollars a pop Kristy" Stacey whispered.

"Fine you can come, meet me at my house at five thirty tomorrow night Alan with the ID's" I said.

"Tomorrow? You're not giving me much time," he said.

"How long does it take to copy and paste out photos onto your template?" Stacey asked.

"Nobody respects artists anymore" sighed Alan.

In the end only four of us were able to go. Mary Anne Mallory and Jessi had all chickened out at the last second, but Mary Anne had at least offered to cover for the rest of us, she told our parents we were sleeping over at her barn. None of our parents seemed to remember that her house has burned down three years ago and that her barn was actually her home.

Claudia had been so excited about the clubbing excursion she'd forgone sleep in order to whip up a brand new outfit for the occasion. Because we were seeing the band Vanish she'd decided to dress up as a magician, complete with the vintage tuxedo a top hat and white face paint with a bunny sewn onto the belt.

I'd had a bit more trouble, I was vaguely aware that people could be turned away from some clubs if they didn't wear the right clothes.

The problem was that I didn't own any of the "right" sorts of clothes at all; my one sexy outfit was a red pajama top that Stacey had given me for my last birthday.

"I'm having the same problem" Abby sighed as we went over out wardrobe choices the next morning.

"See this is the part of being a jock that sucks, we can never get into night clubs," I said.

"I know how to get into nightclubs," Karen said cheerfully from where she was reading her copy of Anne of Green Gables on my bed.

"No you don't" I sighed wearily.

"Yes I do, I saw Lindsay Lohan get into a nightclub in that song of hers and she was seventeen when she made that film clip, all you have to do is dress like her" Karen said flipping over another page.

"Kristy neither of us have Lindsay Lohan clothes" Abby sighed.

"We'll just have to improvise," I said wearily.

In the end Abby and I ended up raiding my mothers wardrobe, ever since my mother married Watson she'd become obsessed with dressing like a Sex in the City Protégée which meant her wardrobe was filled with very expensive designer tops and skirts.

"Right Karen do we look slutty enough now?" I said, I was wearing my best jeans along with a pair of my mothers diamante covered highheels and a tightly fitting black glittering top.

Karen studied me critically and then marched towards me yanking my hair out of its standard pony tail, she then walked to Abby and used her fingers to mess up Abby's already thick curls.

"Now you look perfect," she grinned.

"I feel like Stacey, so sophisticated" Abby grinned causing the heavy green eye shadow she was wearing to fall all over her cheeks.

The doorbell rang and Abby and I jumped to answer it before Mom or Watson got there first.

"You two look awfully dressed up for a sleepover," Sam said knowingly and Abby laughed cheerfully as I opened the door giving Sam the one-fingered salute.

"You're just high on dope Sam, we're really wearing out pajamas" Abby grinned and the door opened.

"Pajamas?" Cary Retlin asked standing on my doorstep next to Alan Grey.

I blinked slowly, realizing I was wearing the skimpiest outfit I'd ever worn in my life.

"What are you doing here?" I asked confused.

"Alan told me on the phone what the babysitters club were up to" he said and then he narrowed his eyes.

"And I couldn't in good conscience let a bunch of teenage girls run around New York with only this goof chaperoning them" he said and before I could react Abby brushed past in a cloud of Karen's Tommy girl Perfume.

"I'm not a goof I'm a dweeb, or a charismatic class clown," Alan said glaring at Cary.

"Thanks Cary that was really thoughtful of you" she said shooting me a knowing look, I sighed with extreme reluctance.

"Yes it was, surprisingly," I said and he eyed Abby and I.

"You're not wearing that are you?" he asked.

"Yes I am actually, occasionally I like to prove that I am in fact a girl," I said folding my arms and he looked amused for a second.

"Its just club Debaser? It happens to be a Goth club," he said.

"A what?" Abby asked looking confused and he grinned again.

"Never mind you'll find out," he said and he turned his heavy black duster flapping in the muggy spring air.

"You know it was my idea to go out with the BSC Cary, why are you always stealing my ideas?" I heard Alan hiss furiously as he ran to Cary.

Abby and I followed him, after all what else could we do?


	8. A theory of man and woman part 2

Chapter Eight: A theory of man and woman.

I hated the fact that I hated Cary Retlin; this was mainly because I knew perfectly well that I didn't really want to hate him at all.

I'd always been that way and I bet a psychiatrist would have pinned it to my father leaving me, admitting to liking a boy was dangerous.

If a boy knew that you liked them they could hurt you, especially when you liked them very very much.

Hatred was easier to deal with, but it still didn't stop the sick stressed feeling in my stomach.

"You know if you keep your face like that it'll get stuck that way," Alan said to me fifteen minutes into the train ride.

Alan was sitting next to me with all our bags and jackets piled up on the other seat. Cary, Stacey Claudia and Abby were in the other adjoining seats, Cary had sat with them in the last available seat before I had a chance to protest and now he was telling them all some sort of stupid elaborate story involving his brother shop lifting a goldfish.

"Good I want it to stay this way, I'll be able to scare every one off" I replied.

"Brilliant strategy Thomas, you know I think the Phantom of the Opera tried the exact same thing" Alan grinned.

"No he covered his face with a mask and it wasn't as if it was that bad, I mean if a plastic surgeon can fix Cokie's nose they can fix him" I replied.

"You've seen that movie?" he asked looking surprised.

"Mary Anne made me watch it at her house, the songs were really lame but I liked the bit when the Phantom flipped out and burnt the whole building down" I admitted.

"Yeah fire is so awesome" he agreed with me and I leaned forward in order to whisper to him.

"Alan I'm going to ask you something and if you don't answer I'll pour something worse then Yoo-hoo down your shirt" I said.

"Fine" he sighed wearily.

"What is with Cary? Why is he so obsessed with Jonathon Mathews and why is he using me to get back to him?" I asked.

"Cary has always been like this Kristy he's the Phantom of Stoneybrook high school after all" he grinned.

"Accept for the facial deformities" I said and then I reached into my shoulder bag pulling out a bottle of water.

"This isn't yoo-hoo but I'd hate to see it spill all over that expensive shirt Allan" I smirked and Alan sighed.

"I'm not sure if I should be telling you this, he'll kill me if he hears us" Alan said.

"Head off to the bathroom, I'll meet you in a little bit and you can tell me everything" I said allowing a single drop of water to fall onto his jeans.

"And what will Cary think if he notices?" Alan pointed out.

"He might think I'm giving you head but it's not like I really care about what he thinks Alan" I pointed out.

Alan was sitting on top of the toilets seat when I found him and I made myself comfortable on the floor, not really caring about messing up my jeans.

"The thing is Kristy, well, what do you actually know about Cary before he came to Stoneybrook?" he asked.

"He once wrote a fake journal about his middle school experiences and I read it but considering it was fake I guess I know nothing" I admitted reluctantly and Alan grinned.

"Cary told me about that, if you must know he went to a private school" Alan began and I smiled.

"Typical it would explain his obnoxious spoilt attitude" I grinned.

"Basically every one at Cary's fathers company sent their kids there, it was one of those schools that covers both middle school and high school, Jonathon Mathews went there as well" Alan continued.

"You're shitting me," I said faintly stunned.

"I almost wish I was, that expression on your face is priceless! If you must know Cary got Jonathon expelled from the private school six months before Cary's father was transferred here. You should have seen Cary when he found out Jonathon's family had been transferred here two years ago, Cary was convinced the guy was the anti Christ" Alan grinned.

"Literally or metaphorically?" I asked.

"Metaphorically, Cary isn't even Christian in fact his a.." he began and I raised my eyebrows.

"A Buddhist" he admitted.

"A Buddhist?" I coughed.

"Yes"  
"But he's so smarmy! I thought that Buddhist's were really nice vegetarians" I exclaimed and Alan glanced up sharply.

"Some ones outside the toilet door" he said jumping off the seat.

"It's probably Cary" I said knowingly and I opened the door, of course I was right.

Cary stared at both of us a sheepish expression on his face.

"I need to wash my hands" he coughed.

"And while you're at it you should wash your ears, they must have gotten dirty with you pressed them against the door" I said brushing past him.

He shot us both a curious look but for once said nothing at all.

I could go into a long description involving the BSC entering new York City but lets face it we've done it a dozen times before, what had once been magical and exciting at thirteen was now just mildly entertaining.

How depressing.

The last time I'd been in the city it had been summer, Abby and I had gone with Charlie to a base ball game.

The Yankee's had lost sixteen to three, it had been so humiliating and Charlie had been so depressed he ended up in a sports bar conveniently forgetting that Abby and I were under aged.

That had been almost a year ago and the early spring air blew against my shoulders as I stepped off the subway next to Stacey who was already looking for a taxi.

"Do we really need a taxi Stacey? The online directory says the clubs only two blocks away," I pointed out.

"This is New York Kristy, a block can sometimes go for ten miles" Stacey replied wearily and Claudia squealed with horror as the kitten heel on her lime green pumps got caught in a sewer great.

Oddly enough she was wearing the shoes with socks and I assumed Cary would object to the outfit like he had with mine but instead he'd grinned and said " Very Harajuka" whatever the hell that meant.

"Lets face it girls Kristy is the only one who can actually afford a taxi, what with the mansion she lives in and all" Cary grinned brushing past her.

"Try not to kill him Kristy, we wouldn't want to dump his corpse in a gutter" sighed Abby.

"Like anyone one notice" I muttered darkly.

"You know Cokie and I have officially broken up" Cary mused stepping alongside me. We'd decided to walk and I tried to put as much distance between the two of us, unfortunately it turned out that Cary was perfectly capable of walking just as fast as me.

"Yes I read about it on the toilet doors" I replied and he laughed.

"News got around that fast huh?"

"Shut up Cary I'm not in the mood for this" I sighed.

"Not in the mood for what Go Lightly?" he asked.

"You being a smug arrogant asshole" I replied sweetly.

"Oh you wound me, here I was trying to actually have a normal adult conversation with you"

"About Cokie Mason?" I asked.

"Yes, as I said earlier we've officially broken up" he continued to prompt me.

"So you said"

"Which means I'm available?" he hinted heavily.

"You should use your new found freedom to invest in new hobbies," I snapped back.

"Got any suggestions?"

"Well there's always exploring the ocean floor, far away from here, or space travel"

"I get sea sick and I'm afraid of heights"

"You're not exactly tough stuff aren't you?"

"Well no one can be as tough as you Thomas" he grinned.

"Of course not, are you going to get to a point anytime Cary?" I asked and I'd realized oddly enough we'd slowed down a bit.

"You and Alan in the toilets? What was that about?" he finally asked.

"What do you think it's about?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

"Well you were gone for awhile" he began.

"Oh honestly" I scoffed.

"And you asked him out tonight! He told me that much" Cary continued and I smirked, Cary was obviously jealous.

"Did you know that Alan was the first boy to ever ask me to a dance?" I asked and it was obvious by his expression that he didn't.

"The thing you need to understand Cary is that before you came alone there were many other boys who played pranks on me, he happened to be one of them" I finished and then I sped up trying to catch up with Abby.

"Stop that right now" he said grabbing onto my wrist; his voice was so quiet no one else has heard it.

They were far to busy untangling Claudia's belt from a newspaper box.

"Cary don't," I said tugging my hand away.

"Why do you always have to make things so difficult?" he said a frustrated expression on his face.

"Because I hate you" I whispered, but my heart wasn't in it.

"Really?" he asked but he wasn't sneering or scowling, his expression was completely blank.

Perhaps I didn't hate him as much as I liked to tell myself, to be fair if I really did I'd be physically exhausted and I'd never get anything done.

But even when something isn't true sometimes you need to keep lying to yourself, just to keep on going.

"You're taking a long time to answer Kristy," he finally said, and I realized he'd said my first name.

"I'm trying to figure out the best way to lie," I admitted.

"Lie?"

"It's a bit difficult you see, I'm usually so honest" I said and he raised his eyebrows.

"I don't mind honesty," he said gently and I shrugged my shoulders.

"Alright well lets suppose hypothetically you're not the most disgusting creature in the universe and that maybe there are people worse then you, if that was hypothetically true then I'd have to admit that I don't hate you": I admitted.

"I can think of at least ten people in the universe who happen to be more disgusting then me, three of which happen to be in our social studies class" he said with a small semi amused smile.

"Would one of them be Cokie Mason?" I asked.

"She's in our social studies class?"  
"You would know that if you ever bothered to show up"

"I had no idea you were keeping such close tabs on me"

"What can I say? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" I pointed out.

"Closer hmm?" he murmured and suddenly their was a shift in body weight and I realized that Cary was in fact standing very close to me.

Crap, it had been a very long time since I'd been in such a situation and I tried to summon my inner baby sitter.

Be responsible Kristy, don't do anything stupid.

Behave yourself.

I'd never really noticed that Cary had nice eyes, it was such a stupid thing to think, but all the other boys I'd been involved with usually had small piggy brown eyes.

Not particularly interesting.

"Are you two done flirting? Because we're here" Stacey suddenly yelled and I jumped backwards very nearly tripping over a discarded newspaper.

Alan was actually sniggering next to Abby who was out right laughing, I felt my face go bright red with embarrassment and I stormed off towards Claudia who judging by her general happy grin had no idea what was going on.

"Lets get this over with," I muttered.

I could see why Cary had been so wary about us going to club Debaser the fashion sense alone was beyond weird. The girls dressed as if they were going to an Alice in wonderland themed party set in hell, lots of frilly little girl dresses in black with odd make up and fairy wings.

Even the boys had skirts on.

Several of them saw Claudia approach the line first and they gave her top hat and face paint approving looks before spotting us, and the ones who saw us stared their expressions completely frozen.

Abby and I exchanged a look and it suddenly occurred to me that Abby's bright green tank top stolen from Anna's wardrobe was the only colorful piece of clothing on the street.

"Suddenly I wish I'd worn my black lace gloves" Stacey muttered her hand trailing to her very blond very bright hair.

"Suddenly I wish I hadn't worn a NSYNC tour shirt" Alan replied zipping up his jacket.

One of the girls was eyeing us with a particularly disdainful look. She was tall and incredibly thin with jet black hair that made her look like an old fashioned movie star, dressed in a black flapper dress with bright red lipstick.

Then suddenly her eyes saw Cary and an almost smile fell on her lips.

"Shadow darling! I see you've brought some newbies to initiate," she said moving towards him and I couldn't do anything but stare when she actually hugged Cary.

"Shadow?" I scoffed.

"Is it to late to admit I've been here before?" he asked us all sheepishly.

"Shadow?" I continued to blurt out.

"Problem newbie?" the girl asked me.

"Well it's a bit pathetic isn't it? Almost like those girls who call themselves Midnight or Emily Strange" I scoffed and her expression hardened.

"Kristy, this is Midnight" Cary said gesturing to Midnight who continued to glare at me.

"Pathetic"

"A little" I admitted and she snorted before turning to Cary again.

"When you've done frightening the children come and join us darling, we're up in the rafters," she said before actually kissing him on the cheek.

None of us said anything as she departed we were all after all far to shell shocked.

"Since when have you been a Goth?" Alan finally asked Cary looking deeply insulted.

"Can some one explain to me what a Goth actually is?" Abby continued and I realized Cary was giving me a faintly resigned look, almost apologetic in his way but really I couldn't stand it.

" A word of advice Cary, wipe the lipstick off your cheek" I informed him.

"So you see Victorians wore black in order to mourn the death of queen Victoria's husband and this led to the Goth look which was later adopted by the eighties people wanting something different from typical punk" Stacey the fashion expert explained to Abby as we sat at our table.

Claudia had snagged us a table close to the back so we could talk without being drowned out by the music, of course I wanted to get close to the stage so I could see Maggie Blume in person but it turned out their was a whole opening act that none of us wanted to listen to.

"So they base their entire life on death? That's weird" Abby mused.

"Well Cary seems to be into it, look at him social networking" Claudia said gesturing to the bar and I snorted.

"Kristy you sound like a horse" Alan said cheerfully.

"Alan you're drunk," I pointed out gesturing to his two empty vodka cruisers.

"Am not" he cried sticking his tongue out before falling off his chair.

"See that's why I'm glad diabetes prevents me from boozing it up" Stacey said rolling her eyes.

"Cary must have done something good, I mean they're not glaring at us anymore" Claudia pointed out as Alan tried to get up before falling down again into a giggling mess.

"I almost wish they would keep glaring, I'd hate to think what he told them," I hissed back.

"We're not the only normal looking people I mean those girls over there seem nice" Abby said gesturing to a group at a near by table who looked relatively normal accept for their body piercing.

" I think they're lesbians" coughed Stacey.

"Stacey not all bald girls with nose rings happen to be lesbians" I scoffed.

"They are when they start making out," Stacey said gesturing to the table.

"You know this is a pretty good show even if the warm up act is a guy in fishnets, what are they singing anyway?" Abby asked crinkling her nose.

"Science fiction double feature" giggled Alan and something clicked in my brain.

"Hey his right, this is science fiction double feature"

"What?" Abby asked.

"You guys really need to stop watching Disney movies it's from the Rocky horror picture show," I told them, I'd only ever seen the movie once before with Sam on the classic movies channel.

"Wait a second did you guys just say the Rocky horror picture show?" Stacey suddenly gulped.

" Um yeah, it's a weird song to play at a rock concert I know but." I began.

"Oh shit" Stacey swore.

"You're going to tell us something really bad aren't you?" I asked.

"There's only one reason a guy in fishnets would sing a rocky horror theme show song live in New York" Stacey informed us.

"You mean he's on drugs?" Claudia asked.

"We have to get out of here right now" Stacey cried grabbing onto her purse.

"What? Why?" I asked and then suddenly the cover band stopped and a drum roll filled the club. Behind the band a make shift screen slowly rose from the floor as dried eyed smoke covered everything in pseudo fake darkness.

Some one walked out onto the stage, a man dressed in a black leather jacket with his hair permed.

"Welcome to what we all know as the Friday Midnight screening of the Rocky horror picture show, tonight I'm delighted to announce that the infamous Maggie Blume will be singing the role of Janet!" he said clasping his hands together and a girl the house lights lip up.

The back of the stage had been set up with a make shift movie screen and next to it stood Maggie dressed in a white bra and petticoat.

"God we have to run, right now" Stacey hissed she was already standing up with a jacket on.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we're virgins and I bet Cary told them that!" Stacey hissed.

"I'm not a virgin!" Claudia pointed out.

"Not that kind of virgin!" Stacey cried and then suddenly I realized a spotlight was moving towards us.

"Now one of our regulars has pointed out we have a whole table of virgins" The MC grinned his lips parted in a ruby red smile.

Suddenly I was aware that several very big semi punks had moved in on us and Alan who was now singing " Hand Bags and Glad rags" was being no help what so ever.

"Now hang on a second" I posted realizing that I was the one who once again had to protect my friends.

One of the punks who scarily enough had a piercing between his eyebrows grabbed me roughly by the arm.

Midnight had appeared out of nowhere pouncing onto Stacey and a clinically obese guy dressed like a vampire had swiped Claudia up.

"Virgins, Virgins, Virgins" the crowd screamed and I did the only thing I could do I kicked the punk right in the balls.

"Well, right in the balls huh?" Maggie Blume addressed us sometime later.

"It's her signature move" Abby sneezed; the pot was really screwing up her allergies.

"I'm Maggie I don't think I've ever actually met this one" she said giving Abby an appreciative look lingering on her skinny jeans. Abby had only ever been checked out twice before in her life and the second time had been by Nicky Pike, needless to say she was flattered and trying to hide it by juggling two empty beer bottles.

We were backstage, backstage being a dingy corridor with a table and two fold up chairs propped up against the fire exit.

"Wow I had no idea that raging lesbian was a new form of teen rebellion Maggie" Stacey said and Maggie sighed.

"It's part of the image, nobody takes Indie rock stars seriously unless they're chicks who love the clits" Maggie grinned sticking a pierced tongue out at Abby who blushed.

"Chicks who love clits? I don't even know what that means," I said and Stacey leaned forward whispering in my ear.

"Oh, clitoris like health class" I realized rolling my eyes and Maggie grinned.

"I would have thought you'd know Kristy after all if anyone screams raging bull dyke it's you" she smirked.

"Like you Maggie I also like to rebel against cultural stereotypes" I grinned back and she nodded.

"Hmm yes I saw that guy out back with the blonde hair and the black trench if I didn't think all men were evil bastards after they drove me to anorexia I'd be quite into him" he said.

"Don't bother his completely smitten the only ass he checks out is Kristy's" sighed Stacey.

"Stacey no one has ever checked out my ass"

"Oh I bet they have it's pretty hot" Maggie said leaning forward and I joined Abby in the terrified stakes.

"Listen Maggie we don't have time to re-enact the classic porn super lesbo rock concert ok? Kristy's come to ask you something," Stacey said interrupting the disturbing leer fest.

"As a former member of the babysitters club franchise you are obligated by contract to help members in time of dire need" I said firmly and Maggie sighed.

"Don't remind me I had to drive Sunny home after her last suicide attempt" she groaned.

"How long will you be in New York for?" I asked and Maggie sighed again.

"Three more weeks then our drummer wants to go back to high school and finish sophomore year why?" she asked.

"Contact you're agent and inform then you'll be playing at the tsunami aide concert in Stamford run by the Teen help association" I said folding my arms and Maggie rolled her eyes.

"Um we were going to announce our presence their anyway" Maggie said.

"You were?" Stacey choked.

"Turns out they couldn't fit us onto the New York concerts playbill for that Live Earth thing and we need to do some save the earth bullshit" Maggie sighed.

"Well then very good, come along girls," I said gesturing to Stacey and Abby however Maggie grabbed onto Abby's wrist.

"Not so fast little kitten we haven't really gotten to know each other yet" she said and Abby noisily cleared her throat.

"Um ok" she said sitting down in the spare chair.

"Abby!" Stacey cried completely scandalized.

"Hey this is the first time in history some one has actually hit on me, the least I can do is get her to buy me a drink" Abby said gesturing to Maggie who merely grinned.

"I do believe Miss Thomas that we've lost nearly our entire party" Cary said materializing behind me the moment I left the club to find fresh air.

"Hmm our party? I don't think so traitor"

"You would have had fun if you'd actually bothered to get up there" Cary sighed and I glared at him.

"Call me crazy but being forced to perform a blowjob on a snickers bar while dancing to the time warp isn't my idea of fun" I said glaring at him.

"You really are very attractive when you glare at me Kristy" he said instead and then he glanced down.

"In fact I can't stop thinking about you with a snicker bar" he added.

"You're disgusting" I grimaced.

"I bet you can't stop thinking about it either"

"Cary the only girls who claim to like sucking on snicker bars are sluts or liars, it's something girls do but trust me we rarely think about it until its practically shoved into our face" I scolded him and he snickered.

"You sound like you've had some bad snicker sucking experience" he grinned.

"Believe me all girls have had bad snicker sucking experience" I grinned back and he looked ever so slightly scandalized.

"Ok I am really craving a snickers right now and there's a diner with vending machines around the corner" he said after a moments thought and I sighed.

"I suppose I do need a caffeine hit if I'm going to stay awake on the train" I admitted.

The diner was surprisingly nice and nothing like the ones I'd imagine from books and movies that usually consisted of fly covered walls and middle-aged waitresses.

Sure it was far from glamorous but it was clean and thankfully cracks head free. As Cary promised there were vending machines and after he purchased his precious snicker bar we slid into a booth.

"So did you get what you wanted?" Cary asked carefully unpeeling the candy bar.

"Not yet I'm still looking at the menu," I replied.

"No at the club" he sighed and I just shrugged my shoulders.

"Well I finally got Abby a date of course it was with a lesbian but beggars cant be choosers" I replied smoothly.

"This entire escape was about helping Stevenson become a woman today?" Cary asked cynically as the waitress approached.

"I'll take the black coffee, the twenty four hour big breakfast and a jug of water," I said handing the waitress the menu.

"Well?" Cary asked and I sighed.

"Cary if you have to ask you'll never know" I replied.


End file.
